Bucket here – After some late day heroics by several people, we were able to get picked up at Walker Pass last night by trail angel Laura (Pancakes) and taken 28 miles to Ridgecrest,CA where Joy had gotten us room reservations at a Best Western. Laura even packed Kendra and I supper to eat at our hotel room- very nice! This is our first zero since May 16th in Wrightwood – which feels like ages ago. We spent several days hiking through Tehachapi Pass and the second largest wind farm in the world. The wind turbines go on forever- I’ll have to look this up sometime to see how many turbines are there. The wind farm is there for a reason – we battled 40-50 mph winds all day and night for days! We have had very large water carries (up to 5.5 liters at a time) because there is simply very little water out here. We rely on water caches that trail angels provide which are spaced 18-20 miles apart. Without these water caches it would be impossible to hike this section of trail.
So Kendra and I were a little beaten down and ready for a zero day! We got here last night and showered, and I done laundry until about 9:30 last night. Today we will resupply and hopefully find some place to eat!
We plan to return to the trail tomorrow morning – but we need to arrange a ride back to the trail. We are just 50 miles away from Kennedy Meadows (trail mile 702) which is basically the end of the desert section of trail and start of the Sierra Mountains! There will be new challenges here I’m sure, but we’re hoping water will be more plentiful and the long, heavy water carries will be done.
That’s it for now. Thanks again to everyone following this journey and for commenting. We downloaded more photos this morning (I obviously still need to figure out how to take a photo without it jumping to video mode!). Thanks to Joy for everything she does as Command Central!
Hi from Gary and Donna In Florida. Safe travels.
Hi Gary & Donna – Bucket here – great to hear from you guys! Thank you for following our trek!
David, Pam And Angie just left. He said he read about the trip a couple of days . I bet you will love it not having to carry all that water daily. That is something i know I am guilty of taking for granted, like it is always around the corner at home. I am still asking God to watch over you two. keep you safe and bring you home saying it was worth it. LOVE you two very much., and you are always on my mind
Hi mom – Bucket here – sorry – I meant to call you today but time got away from us. Thank you for your prayers and for thinking of us. We will be back on the trail tomorrow morning – trail angel Laura is taking us back out. We hope to get to Kennedy Meadows in 3 days to start the Sierra Nevada mountains.