We spent today and yesterday relaxing and restoring… it was such a nice change of pace compared to our rush to get to Tehachapi. Our first stop was at a German bakery where we got coffee and Reuben sandwiches at 8:30 am. That was a new one for me. Mackenzie, Sarah, Spoons, Tiber, and I were enjoying our coffee when we ran into Kindness, Lookback, Anonymous, Yirka, Worldwide, and a couple others. It’s been great taking town days as we’ve run into people we haven’t seen in weeks. Everyone we ran into seemed pretty beat up from the night hike and was excited to be in town to rest.

After breakfast, we enjoyed the hot tub at the air bnb and took it upon ourselves to give each other haircuts. It seemed the main style we all went for was a mullet… sorry mom (it’s not that bad - pictures to come soon). The rest of the day was spent eating and napping. Mackenzie and I had a little date night at a Mediterranean place called Petra.

The morning of the 18th, we all got up and made our way to Wal-Mart to gather our resupply. Unfortunately, for Sarah and Mackenzie, this next leg would be tied with our longest carry - five days. We spent the morning shopping and then brought our things to a breakfast place called Henry’s to load up on food and most importantly, link up with Brigham and finally meet his now wife. Brigham is responsible for getting me out on the trail and I owe him for planting the seed. It was awesome catching up with him and Kate.

We then left our brunch to drop our stuff off and go for an eight mile ‘slack pack’. A slack pack is basically where you leave your backpack in town, go back out to the trail and hike, and then get a ride back into town. You hiked the miles but didn’t need to bring a tent or your pack. It was great to get the ladies out on the trail and the views of the wind farm were awesome.

Tonight, we’re watching a movie and calling it an early evening. Hitting the trail for real tomorrow.

Happy beds…

We woke up this morning and overhauled our air bnb. After cleaning, we hit the trail around 12:30 and had a pretty significant climb up. I felt for Sarah and Mackenzie as we had a 16 mile hike with significant elevation and no water - full packs and 4 liters of water… our heaviest carry. Luckily, their enthusiasm and excitement pushed them through the worst of it.

We had a 4.5 mile climb up with roughly 3,500 feet in elevation gain. We climbed up and had lunch under the shade of some Joshua trees. It was an additional climb up to the top and once we reached the summit, some rolling hills to our final destination. The ladies did awesome and seemed to really enjoy the trail thus far. We’re definitely going to have some sore feet and legs but our packs will get lighter and lighter each day.

We ended our day at a water source and ran into Graffiti, a hiker we met at hiker town. Mackenzie and I recently purchased a trekking pole tent and set it up for the first time this evening. For those curious, it’s called the Durston X-Mid Pro 2 person. It’s a sexy looking tent with great headroom and clocks in well under two pounds. I’m thankful for that as I’m going to be carrying the tent. It’s a bit windy this evening but our tired bodies should have no problem getting some rest.

Happy trails….