Winnnndy!

Lucky or unlucky for you, not having internet for 8 days means a much longer blog than normal for me...

Wind is the theme of this last 8 day stretch from Mojave to Kennedy Meadows.  Oddly enough, it is getting cooler the further north we head into more desert.  It is hard to complain about the cool weather though as it is great to hike in.

After resupplying in Mojave, Katie and I did an evening hike of 10 miles. It was breezy when we went to bed, but a few hours later the wind started picking up and did not stop!  Needless to say, it was a looooong night as the tent stakes came out twice.  On top of that, the tent zipper is not working well, so every time we have to get out of the tent it takes about 10 minutes to zip the tent back up.

The next day was a climb out of Tehachapi Pass which, come to find out, is one of the windiest places on earth.  The wind just sucked the energy out of me and there were gusts probably as high as 50 mph.  I can understand why Tehachapi/Mojave has one of the largest wind farms in the world and I will be happy to not see a windmill for a very long time!

On our third day on this stretch we saw a black bear!  I could not believe it and was certainly not expecting it in this area as there were a lot of burn areas, windmills and the water is scarce.  It barreled across the trail about 50 feet in front of Katie and was so loud coming through.  Although it was cool to see a bear, we both had Elvis legs for a bit after that so we decided to use our recently purchased portable AM/FM radio to make sure we didn't startle any more bears :0)

Day 4 was a good one as we dropped down to the desert floor for the last time.  The water continues to be scarce, but thankfully a trail angel stocks 2 water caches at two key locations for the hikers to make it doable.  Today was also the day I finally got my trail name...I am officially Cowgirl!

Day 5 got off to a rough start as our tent was in the cross wind.  Same thing as the first night, we had to fix the stakes multiple times and then work on zipping the tent back up.  Hiking that morning was also tough with the strong winds.  The good news is that we are heading out of the desert and got our first glimpse of the Sierras in the distance.

The rest of days 6, 7 and 8 were more of the same.  Still lots of wind, but the scenery was changing and we did a lot bigger climbs and were in the trees more with more opportunities for water.  We arrived Tuesday at  Kennedy Meadows which is 5 days ahead of schedule!  To me, this place marks the unofficial start of the PCT and the last 700 miles was physical and mental training.  We figure if we can make it through the desert, we should be able to make it the rest of the way (assuming no major injuries of course).

We are taking 10 days of food with us out of Kennedy Meadows to go just under 200 miles.  That will get us to Vermillion Valley Resort and also allow us a side trip to climb Mt. Whitney.  We continue to try to figure out how much food to bring, but we are going with about 2,800 calories per day for this stretch.  On the food front, I have been enjoying all my food so far.  The only thing I don't like is mashed potatoes.  On the other hand, the one food I love and just discovered in Mojave is flavored butter (garlic herb, Italian herb); it is delicious!  We spread it on a tortilla with meat, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and it makes a tasty high-calorie wrap.  I eat a lot of bars (Kind, Lara, Snickers, ProBar, etc.), cookies, chips, nuts and take a daily multi-vitamin to make myself at least feel a little healthier.  We cook a main "dinner" just once a day which helps us conserve fuel.

Not only are we taking 10 days of food, we also have to carry bear canisters for a while through the Sierras which weigh 2lbs 9oz each.  The bear canister can only probably fit about 6 days of food in it, so I am going to have to do some creative packing to get everything in my bag.

I will have to send out some pics later as the "Internet Cafe" here is not set-up for that.

Thanks to all who have sent care packages to us out here!  It is so awesome to have such great friends and family and so nice to get mail!

Happy Trails,
Cowgirl