The Adventures of...: Days 34-35

Day 34, 16 miles, endpoint PCT mile 583

We waited for our ride with Ted at 10am outside the Motel 6 with Smiles and Uke, who were also going back to the trailhead. Josh and Uke compared haircuts: both had grown tired of hot heads in the desert and gave themselves buzz cuts in Mojave. We soon found out that we were on what we called "Ted time," which ran a little slower than regular time. Ted finally rolled up at about 10:45. The four of us smushed into his small Corolla with four large packs and five boxes to be dropped off at the post office into his small Corolla.

Ted has lived in Mojave for more than 60 years. He is a retired city councilman who enjoys looking at the stars with the observatory he built in his backyard, going to the donut shop (his "office") three times a week to socialize and have coffee, and doing whatever else he can to stay busy. "The worst thing to do would be to wake up every morning and turn on the TV," he told us. "You've got to stay busy."

Ted took us to the post office where we dropped off our bounce bucket, a box of things to return home to Josh's mom, and three food shipments for the Sierras. Then it was a stop at the aforementioned donut shop for some last minute food before we drove the 11 miles back to the trailhead. The four of us said our goodbyes to Ted and we were off. We immediately started on a 3,000 foot climb up a rocky, dusty hill; the highway grew smaller and smaller with each switchback. Once we went up and over the first hill the terrain became greener with more trees, and there was a nice breeze.

We went a little bit farther than we planned as it was hard finding a good camping spot, but we made it. We have about one week to go until Kennedy Meadows. These are our last desert days!

Best donuts we have ever had, and we weren't starving when we had them. Even better than VooDoo. In Mojave of all places.

The definition of cool... and we ain't talking umbrellas.

Trail views... long hot climb as soon as we got back to the trail.

The Portland crew.

Rain clouds coming in at sunset.

Home for the night.

Camp views.

Day 35, 21 miles, endpoint PCT mile 604

We hit a water spring this morning less than a half mile from our camp spot, then entered a 19 mile waterless stretch. The first half of the day went through yet another another area that was burnt to a crisp by a recent fire. The black, mangled trees provided no shade, and the wind turbines that still stood sentry on every surrounding hillside were growing tiresome.

However, in the afternoon we entered a forest. A real, honest-to-God forest. The ground was dark brown dirt and pine needles, instead of dust and rocks. For once the trees were taller than me. In fact, they soared into the air. There were pine cones everywhere. Squirrels darted to and fro. Birds were chirping. I felt like I had died in the desert and gone to forest heaven.

The only downside was all of the climbing we did. We had a lot of elevation gain throughout the day, and my pack is still quite heavy with all of our food. My legs are feeling a bit tired tonight.

At the water spot 19 miles later we met up again with Smiles and Uke. We hiked out another two miles with them and set up camp. For the first night in awhile the winds are calm and the temperature feels mild. We have about 100 miles to Kennedy Meadows. The countdown is on!