Thurs, August 11     Miles today: 22.3            Total so far: 1,537.7          So. CA Section F

It ws still dark at 5:00 am, so we waited for a little while before getting up.  The sun had not even risen yet, and it was already warm and very windy.  The windmills near our camp had been running all night long, but their sound is not annoying, at least not to me, anyway.  It’s sort of a low-pitched pleasant hum.  But when we put on our packs–groan!  They were heeeeeavy with 6 days of food, PLUS a lot of water (we had 5 liters each).  After praying together as we do each morning, we were on our way, enjoying several miles of comfortable contouring, with views of impressive high cliffs and rocks.

But then the trail became increasingly overgrown with various types of bushes, which we had to push through.  Not fun!  Eventually we began to climb again and get views of Kelso Valley.  At one point, the trail was lined for over a mile with red flowers that hummingbirds seem to love!  I have never seen so many hummingbirds in one place!  The flowers were pretty, and the hummingbirds were really cute, but after awhile even I got tired of pushing through the “red flower plants.” 

Now we were truly in the Piute Mountains, sometimes in oak forest, sometimes among pines.  Finding a shady place for lunch was important–it was 95 degrees again!  In the afternoon came much climbing in the hot sun–very tough for me.  I have to go much more slowly and sometimes even stop in the shade if I start feeling too wiped out by the heat.  The PCT here goes in and out of public and private property.  It’s not hard to tell the difference–private property is WELL-posted!  And the PCT itself was peppered with warning signs about “stay on the trail” and “trail easement is only 10 feet wide”. 

Just before 4 pm, we reached Robin Bird Spring.  The guidebook had been quite ecstatic, describing it as a “lovely place.”  But what we found was vandalized, littered with “cow pies” and broken glass.  Even the spring was all messed up, but we found a note tacked to a post about how to go under the fence, up the hill, then find a black pipe where spring water was coming out.  As it turned out, the actual spring was covered with a box.  Again, Bill patiently pumped the water filter while I cooked dinner.   Usually we cook at noon, but when it’s hot and water is in short supply, we wait and cook AT a water source.  It was two hours before we were all done and got going again and we did another 4 or 5 miles before calling it quits just before 8 pm.  We found a great campsite among large boulders with lots of soft pineneedle duff on the ground.  And it even had a great “bear tree” for hanging our food.  I fervently wished we could have gotten more miles done, but carrying such a heavy load plus all that time pumping water, and the very hot day had really slowed us down.  But again, we are very grateful that God made it possible for us to be here, and every step we take is getting us nearer to the Sierras!

Wed. August 10       Miles today: 16.1        Total so far: 1,515.4           So. Ca Section F

We said goodbye to Debbie early this morning, very grateful for their hospitality and prayers.  Mel dropped us off at the Denny’s near the post office on his way to work.  We planned to have a big breakfast while waiting for the post office to open!  We’d hardly sat down when Mel came back with a packet of “stuff-to-mail” that I’d accidentally left on the seat of the car.  I was so glad he had spotted it! 

We had a great breakfast and got some friendly cheers and encouragement from two truckdrivers at the table next to us.  Then it was just a short stroll to the Tehachapi post office, for the LAST time!  And as usual, no box for us.  I told the patient clerk that we wouldn’t be bothering her again, and arranged to have the box sent home, whenever it did arrive.  (Note: it never did!  And it never returned home, either.  It just disappeared somewhere in the USPS.)  But we were all set with everything we needed–food and maps!  And the fact that we had those two vital items was purely and simply a gift from God to us.

To get back to the PCT, we’d arranged for a ride with trail angels Don and Winnie,  so we went out in front of the post office to wait for them.  It was a hot day already, so we “lurked” in the shade.  Don and Winnie were right on time, and turned out to be a wonderful old couple “whose backpacking days are over”, but they love helping hikers.  They were all excited because the space shuttle Discovery had safely landed at nearby Edwards Air Force base the day before, and they were there to watch.  “Happy trails!” they cheered as we started off on the PCT once more!

PCT Section F begins with a walk along the freeway, but finally it headed up the hill, with a “nice little” 2,000 foot climb.  No biggie, we got used to those in Washington!  And there were the great southern CA rock formations again and yes, still some wildflowers!  We also enjoyed the great views of the Mojave as we climbed higher and higher.  Eventually the PCT travels along a jeep road, and I guess the yahoos like to use PCT emblems for target practice.  Sigh.  The windmills of course were all humming away.  To me they look like great white flowers.  I don’t know why so many hikers grump about “ugly windmills.”  To the north were fine views also, and we kept looking there hoping for some tiny glimpse of the Sierras up ahead.

By late afternoon we were headed downhill among awesome rocks, when as we came around a bend in the trail, what should we see but a mama bear and cub, right IN the trail ahead of us.  They did not see us–boy, bears can be clueless!  After silently admiring them for a moment, it was time to run them off, so we did our “alpha bear” routine of yelling, waving trek poles and stomping at them as if we were angry.  “Hey, yousa!  Get outta MY trail!”  Mama and cub went tearing up the mountain and out of sight!  Good!  We do our best to “teach” any bears we meet that people are ALPHA bears, and are to be respected.

Around 7 pm, we reached Golden Oak Spring, and Bill went right to work pumping water through our filter while I got ready to cook dinner.  We’d heard that somewhere between Tehachapi and Kennedy Meadows, a number of hikers had picked up a dose of giardia, and we didn’t want to add to the statistics.  But man, filtering water is a PAIN!  Golden Oak Spring has a water trough, but the water in the trough was yucky and full of tadpoles.  Fortunately, the water runs into it from a pipe up above, and Bill would fill our “washtub” (the cutoff bottom of a 1 gallon plastic jug) from the pipe, then pump the clean water out of the washtub, instead of the dirty water from the trough.  He “did” enough water for dinner, plus 18 hot miles of no water tomorrow.

By the time we were done with all the water filtering and eating dinner, it was 8:00, and already starting to get dark.  Once again, we were reminded that the days really are starting to get shorter here!  In Washington, we would have been able to keep going for a little while.  Normally we would NEVER camp where we had cooked dinner, but going on now was out of the question.  So we found a nice tall tree to hang food bags on in case mama bear showed up, and camped near the spring.  Our evening serenade was a frog opera chorus, plus the gentle humming noise of nearby windmills.  It was so wonderful to be back on the PCT at last!