Day 37

May 15

Mile 558 - Mile 569

There was a rumor that the Best Western we were staying at had an incredible continental breakfast so we were all up by 7:30am in order to make the most of our time before it ended at 9. It lived up to its reputation - eggs, sausage, breakfast sandwiches, waffles, etc. We filled our stomachs then tackled the rest of our chores for the day so that we could make it back to trail at a decent time. Wrapping up our loose ends, we ventured out to the post office and back (it was super far) to mail our re-supplies ahead. We made it back in time for our late check-out and then hitched with our extremely heavy packs back to the trail.

We were back on trail by 2:30ish, which was a little later than we we had planned, but we were happy to be heading north again. We continued through the wind farm where we had jumped off and quickly realized why there were so many windmills in this particular area. It was crazy windy. We joked about how we wished someone would just turn off all the darn fans and make the wind stop. Har har. :)

Windmills in the distance as we headed back towards the ridge line and out of town. 

Soon after leaving, we met a PCT southbounder who was giving out trail magic as he walked. It was a shame we had just come from town and already had plenty of food, but I'm sure it's bad juju to deny trail magic, so we let him load us up with bags of chips which we enjoyed immediately. 

Not long after the trail magic we noticed the clouds gathering and soon enough they blotted out the sun. Above is Mike in front of the next ridge we were to tackle.

Illuminated trail with ominous rain clouds looming in the distance.

We were sure we were about to get drenched, but instead watched the storm roll through and luckily dodged yet another one. We enjoyed the break from the sun in the meanwhile and braced ourselves against the strong winds that howled in our ears.

We made our way down to highway 58 and stumbled across a strange silo with graffiti that felt like it may or may not have something to do with the movie WILD (or Cheryl Strayed), only because this was where she had begun her section hike of the PCT. 

We then paralleled the highway for a few miles, and eventfully climbed a ridge away from the pass.

By evening the sky had cleared above us and we caught this sunset which struck us as authentically Californian, framed by Joshua trees.

After putting in a few more miles before dark, we found a beautiful campsite in a bunch of the Joshua trees. The wind was gusting and they provided a little bit of a windbreak for the night.

The view from near our campsite of an opposing ridge and continuation of the windfarm we had hiked through. 

The wind at night was equal to that we experienced at the night we spent at the Coldwater Preserve - that is to say, very very very windy.