We are relaxing under a bridge right now at mile 535. It is super windy and the only noise I hear is of wind turbines spinning as we are in the middle of a gigantic wind farm. We have been walking along or on top of the Los Angeles aquaduct for the past 15 miles today and will soon be working our way back up and over the hill to get to our next resupply town of Mojave.
Since the Saufley's we have stayed with 2 more trail angel's, the Andersons' and Hikertown. The Andersons' was great. A nice couple who feed the hungry hikers pancakes and coffee for breakfast and a buffet-style taco salad for dinner every day! The night we were there was a low-key night they said, but there were still about 15 of us chatting it up on their front driveway through the evening. Katie and I have been hiking with 4 others for the past week or so. The 6 of us are 2 for 2 in hitching a ride that we and our bags can all fit in, both to and from the Andersons'.
Hikertown was the place we stayed last night. Frankly, it was kind of weird, but it was a great place out of the wind and I was able to get a a shower and a bed for $10. There are a couple pics below of the place, but basically it is like a tiny town of some sort. I guess some ex-Disney exec lived there at some point and built all these small buildings. I stayed the night in the "Doctors Office" and Katie was in the "Officer's Quarter".
This next stretch from Mojave to Kennedy Meadows will be our longest so far, about 150 miles. It will also be the last section of the desert area as Kennedy Meadows is the starting point entering into the Sierras. We are hiking farther each day than we predicted, averaging about 20-22 miles per day.
A couple random notes...
I finally saw my first rattle snake after 470 miles of hiking. It was rattling loudly and was all coiled up before darting off across the trail, but I did not think fast enough to get a picture (sorry Shawna)!
On another note, this hitch hiking thing is better than I thought! The trick seems to be to take off your hat and sunglasses so they can easily see your face and to smile! On this hitch into Mojave, the 6 of us again got a ride all together and it was the 7th vehicle to go by!
Lastly, I am working on a smiley-face sun tattoo on my calf and it is coming in pretty nicely! See pic below.
Here are updates trail stats after 33 days:
# snakes: 15
# nights indoor: 5
# pushups: 160
# days of rain: 1
# showers with soap: 8
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