Day 41

Tehachapi to golden oaks springs - 16.8 miles

Total - 583.3 miles

Woke up early as I had scheduled a ride from a trail angel around 7:30am. We got our delicious breakfast provided by the exquisite hotel aka the best western. The guy that picked us up was a firefighter so we got more information on the fire. Apparently it might’ve been a wind mill that had been worked on that started the fire as it happens often around here. He said if you don’t get a lot of updates on a fire then it’s a good sign so that calmed our nerves. We then got to the trail head to start the steep climb up. This section doesn’t have a lot of water as it’s more true desert so it was a 3.5 liter carry which sucked ass up the big hill. At one point I thought I was gonna throw up. You have to get your body back into the groove of hiking after three zeros so I was suffering just a lot. It wasn’t too bad honestly I’m just being dramatic. The climb was exposed and in the sun but guess what? The fucking wind was going once again! So fun! Again I was thrown around like a little rag doll. The wind was shooting up my nose like I had water in it. I hate that feeling. I was losing my breath at some points making it feel like I was on the brink of a minor panic attack. We are also in a new bubble of people which was strange as we were used to our old bubble of people and faces. Miss those guys. We stopped for lunch and chilled under a tree and then pushed onto the water. Again unexpectedly it was very beautiful as the rocks jutted out of the cliffs and the views were pretty. It was hot though and I kinda just wanted to be done. We finally got to the water source and it was a pipe dispensing water at the slowest rate I’ve seen on trail. Like 5 minutes per liter. We relaxed and chilled under the tree (after we claimed our tent spots…super important to do that early). Marc took a nap so I snapped some pictures with him. I made dinner and then did the rest of my chores. The wind is going tonight but the trees are blocking most of it which is amazing as I won’t have to worry about my tent poles snapping. I can hear the big windmill whooshing in the background as white noise for tonight. Oh! I also saw the burn and all the fire retardant the firefighters used. Very surreal to see how black the landscape looked. Other than that not much to report. Good day but kinda uneventful.