Day 35

May 13

Mile 538 - Mile 558

Taking down the tent in the morning.

Waking up this morning was rough after such a late night of hiking. We packed up and took in the sights around us that were shrouded in darkness the night before. We were in the middle of an immense wind farm and the giant hypnotic turbines dominated the landscape.

These things are huge, like 300' tall.

The desert landscape around us was barren and hot as the sun rose in the sky. Our only relief was the ever present wind, rotating the turbines and cooling us down during our hiking.

More turbines.

Trail through (you guessed it!) more turbines.

We had one option for water today, a small creek hidden in a fold of an arid mountain. The water was flowing well and was clear and we enjoyed a break alongside it with a few other hikers, including one who quietly strummed on a ukulele. 

Our bodies appreciated the rest as our feet and legs were feeling pretty beat up from such big miles the past two days. We eventually headed back out into the desert, except now we had some light cloud cover. Word was that some weather was moving in and rain was in the forecast. Good thing we were close, about 15 miles, from a road where we could hitch to our next town stop, Tehachapi.

If you look close in this picture, you can see a series of switchbacks where the trail winds its way up this desert mountain. We were happy to tackle this climb under the cover of clouds.

Mile after mile, the lure of town with showers and laundry and food motivated our every step as we climbed onto the ridge. We stayed on the ridge for the rest of the hike down to the road, walking through another burn area and then through another wind farm.

Me with an interesting obstacle in the trail. Trees that have been burned become very unstable and can fall down so we have to be very careful when/if we camp near them and check we aren't near any widow makers.

We started seeing these squat little orange flowers today in the burn section. We hadn't seen them before today.

Better view of the trail through some of the burn. 

As we neared the road it was starting to get dark and the turbines were all illuminated in the evening light.

More and more Joshua trees as we descended. 

We were at the road by dusk, and got a ride into town where we met up with a couple of friends who had rented a motel room for the night. We all went out for some food and drinks to celebrate then returned to the motel room to call it a night.