Woke up with dampness in the air. It was the first time it felt humid on this trail. Was ready to see Hiker Town for the first time so that got me going. The crew left camp and started the climb. I had to slow down because my blood sugar felt low even though I had pop tarts. I really think I need to start eating more for breakfast. I pulled over on trail and took a break for a bit, drank some electrolytes, and ate some food. I felt better after 20 minutes so I got up and headed out. The walk was really nice. Ended up walking with Smokey a bit and we chatted. Super cool guy. He was telling me about being a forest fire fighter.

I eventually made it to Green Valley where stretch and Rollercoaster were hanging out. This trail angel Drifter was a friend of smokies and had been waiting for him. They met on the Arizona trail, he’s also a triple crowner. Lucky for us, he wanted to feed Smokey so we got in on that too. He laid out a picnic of fruits, snacks, cold drinks, and even made us Mac n cheese! It was sooooo delicious. Such a nice guy. We chilled and said our goodbyes to hike the rest of the miles until the fire closure, which we decided to hitch around.

We eventually made it to the start of fhe fire closure where Smokey showed up and his friend drifter again who again gave us cold sodas! This dude is awesome! We waited til our ride came at 4, went around the fire closure and back on trail to Hikertown. I was so ready to get there. We got there finally; the place looked like a nice shanty town with many random buildings painted to look like a tiny town. It was so cool. We rented out one of the RVs for 40 bucks total. I also ran into a bunch of folks I haven’t seen in a while. It was so nice.

We decided to go to the market near hiker town. While we were there one of the tramily members changed their mind about wanting to do the LA Aqueduct at night and do it early in the morning instead. We had been talking about doing a little walking party at night with glow sticks and all that jazz for a couple weeks now so it took us all off guard. Everyone decided to do that and I was pretty bummed. Things change. Just kind of changed the feel of things. Wish something would have been said much sooner.

Anyways, went back to the RV and passed out knowing we were getting up early.

Woke up stupid early and slightly grumpy that the plan had changed from chilling for the day and doing the rave walk. Everyone trickled out and the air was already starting to heat up.

It was so cool to see the aqueduct in the flesh. It’s one of those talked about events on trail and to actually be standing on it was surreal. This stretch was also supposed to be the windiest on trail and ofcourse, the day we decided to do this, there was no wind at all. So we were walking through the Mojave desert in 90 degree weather instead of doing this at night.

Thank goodness I ran into Rocky and we talked about everything. She was peeved too. We ended up stumbling upon a random ice chest with delicious cold drinks and boiled eggs. I was glutinous and had two of each. I didn’t care. We chilled and got a move on. Finally ended up at the bridge that’s the only shade for miles when we saw the others. We laid there for hours until the weather cooled down and the wind picked up making it even cooler.

The gang wanted to do 14 more miles on top of the 17 we already did and I knew that wasn’t happening. I was so tired. I ended up doing 7 more, still a long ass day. I told them I’d see them in Tehachapi. Florida man and another guy is camping here too. I cooked by Florida man and we caught up. He’s a sweet dude too.

Been thinking about the folks I’m hiking with. I really like them a lot, just not sure if how they’re hiking is matching up with what I want to do. They haven’t even taken a zero day since starting trail and I’ve been back two weeks without one and am in desperate need. And just how the change went down about the LA aqueduct walk was a bit strange. I have a feeling I’ll probably zero alone in Tehachapi and that’s okay. I might try and catch up with them at Kennedy Meadows.