Daily Miles: 27.0
Total Miles: 92.7
Well, this day just kind of got away from me a little bit. After pulling 20+ miles yesterday I had absolutely no intention of coming anywhere near that today. Best laid plans though. The wind did not let up at all last night, and I probably had some of the worst sleep so far on the trail. When I rolled over and saw that it was light out I felt glad that I had actually at some point been able to get some sleep but I was afraid to roll over and look down at my feet for the inevitable. As I feared my tarp tent had collapsed on my feet. I knew there was no way it was going to stand up to the wind and I began to slowly claw myself and my stuff out of the tent.
It was 27 miles to Walker Pass, where I would eventually work my way into Lake Isabella for my first small resupply. I figured that if I could make it about 15 or 16 miles today then I could have a relatively easy 11 or 12 miles to get to the pass and hitch in tomorrow.
I was still able to get my stuff together and moving by about 7:15. It was about 6 miles to the second resported cache at Bird Spring Pass and I was down to about 3 liters. I was trying not to drink really anything until I got there because I didn't want to take a chance that it was empty. It was a slow slog through more wind ravaged sandy hills.
At some point, a female hiker came up behind me and we talked for a minute. She apparently had gotten to the prior cache after me yesterday and had been there when Devilfish, the trail angel that helps stock the caches had showed up and said the second cache was full. I immediately proceeded to chug a liter and a half of water.
Coming down to Bird Spring Pass, her story was validated and there was 100+ gallons of water there again waiting for us. In addition was a cooler with a whole bunch of hiker food staples in it - snack bars, pop tarts, tortillas with peanut butter and nutella, and gummy bears. Absolutely amazing. I took a couple tortillas and filled up water but I knew I had enough food to make it to Walker Pass so I left the rest for other hikers who might be in greater need.
Having hiked 6 miles already and it was only 11AM I knew that I had about 9 miles left to some reported campsites and I had all day to get there. Just one big up (about 1500+ feet) out of Bird Spring Pass and the rest of the way to Walker Pass would be very small ups and downs and then one big down. I intended to sit there at the cache for about 3-4 hours to rest and take my time, but the wind just would not let up. Almost 24 hours now of non-relenting wind. After about an hour of laying there I just started to get antsy and figured that if I could get up the big hill I had all afternoon to try to find a spot out of the wind to camp and that way I wouldn't be rushing and running out of light like the previous night.
So I started up the hill and I actually kept a great pace with minimal rest breaks once I got to the top.
I just somehow got in a zone and would hike for about 2 hours straight and stop for about 15-20 min, then repeat the cycle again. Somewhere around 3PM I realized I was at my goal of about 15 miles. It was still damn windy though. The trick with these desert ridge walking is that the trail doesn't really walk over flat terrain where you can just throw your tent down anywhere. The trail more or less cuts along the sides of the hills sloping up and down from the trail at all times.
The campsites I was looking for came and went as once again they were fully exposed. There were more about 5 more miles away and the trail was very easy to there so I continued on.
About 4:45 I came to those campsites precariously close to having done 20 miles again. These were much better but the wind was still there. I knew the last 7 miles were basically downhill all the way to Walker Pass, and that without a doubt the wind would be easier to handle down there. I still felt good, the blisters had kind of gone numb on my feet so I knew I could make it down. I decided if it was a bad decision then I could take some extra time in Lake Isabella, but the prospect of spending another night camped in 30-40 mph winds scared me more. So I pulled out my last dinner - 2 ramen packets - and ate them like candy bars without cooking them for extra energy, and on I went.
Long and winding was the way down Walker Pass, but I pulled into Walker Campground at about 7:15. 27 miles in exactly 12 hours with a few breaks. Pretty solid pace. I was tired but I was where I needed to be to hitch into town tomorrow. There was still some wind but not as much as on the ridge and even though I didn't want to do that many miles I knew I had made the right decision. No dinner to cook, I was set up and in my tent with a half hour. Sleep came easy with dreams of Mountain Dew and a cushy bed to sleep in tomorrow night
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