5.24.18. 23.9 miles.

I slept pretty well last night once I got to sleep. People were pretty loud and talking until 9 pm, aka “hiker midnight” and I wish people would start quieting down earlier. Like 8 pm. Especially when we all know we’re waking up super early to hike! I did wake up sweating around 2 am though- I was pretty warm throughout the night even though I didn’t use my quilt straps or button it up at all.

I went to sleep last night in my hiking clothes so I wouldn’t take so long to get ready in the morning. And it took me about 30 less minutes to get ready! Idk why it takes me so long to get changed in the morning.

I was ready by 4:30 and went into the market to get a Gatorade and share a breakfast burrito with LOL. We started getting antsy at 5 bc that’s when our ride was supposed to leave, but no one was doing anything and all of the other hikers had ordered HUGE breakfasts and were taking their time with them. Finally around 5:15 the owner gave us who had been waiting a while a ride to the trail.

The morning was pretty gorgeous. It was nice to watch the sun rise again! I feel like I’ve missed it a lot recently. We hiked on a dirt road for a bit until we came to the open section of the aqueduct. It was nice looking at the water before it became a huge pipe that we walked on! This part of the aqueduct hike was actually kind of fun and exciting, but once the sun rose higher and the pipe turned into concrete with the water underground, there was nothing to amuse us anymore. Just 10 more miles of dirt road walking until our lunch break spot.

I can definitely see why people night hike this part because it’s not very pretty, very monotonous, and it’s soooo exposed. We were so lucky with the weather. High of 75 and sometimes windy. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it was hotter.

dirty feet even with thick socks & gaiters!

We got over 17 miles done by 12:30 pm and hunkered down under a bridge after getting water from a faucet. The shade was so nice! I ate lunch and took a 1 hour nap. At 3 pm we left the bridge to go 6.5 more miles to another water source, which is our last before Tehachapi, to camp for the night. LOL and Hot Mess booked it there bc there were a lot of people under the bridge and we were nervous there wouldn’t be a lot of room. Butters and I went our usual slower pace which isn’t even that slow, and we eventually got there around 6ish. It was nice getting into camp early to set up & filter water. Tonight was definitely one of those nights where I just wanted to get into my tent and lay down and not do anything for the rest of the night. I even had to force myself to eat dinner.

I think we’re going to have more of a chill day tomorrow, we just need to hike 17-20 miles to set us up nice for a short hike to the highway where my parents will pick us up Saturday morning to go to Tehachapi!