Day 27: Mile 454 to 471   (17 miles) 

Storm is moving in today. I text Mary who is a trail angel who gives rides to hikers between Acton and Agua Dulce. She was going to pick me up before 11am and get me up to Agua Dulce. Once I arrived, I went into the store and loaded up on new water bottles since I have been down two bottles for the last few days. I then went next door to charge my phone since I won’t have the sun for nearly two days. I got a nice spaghetti and garlic bread lunch which was huge in serving size!

I was back on the trail by 1:30pm and made a call to my dad to update him on shipping out my next resupply boxes to the next locations. It had already started to rain when I was in town and it was only the beginning. Depending on my elevation, there may be snow but I might miss it since I’m hitting the higher elevations before the snow is supposed to start. I also made a phone call to TJ and Steph and got to hear updates on how the rest of the season went and also update them what it’s like out on the trail. The rain started to get worse and it was time to tuck the phone back into the pack and just keep moving. I had planned on walking through the storm and knew I was going to be soaking wet.

As I neared the top of the ridge, the rain turned into a rain/snow mix and sleet was driving into me sideways. My hands were starting to get cold but the rest of my body felt warm as I kept hiking into the clouds. Visibility dropped down to about 30 yards and sleet changed to hail and then back to sleet. Weather could not make up its mine. I checked my thermometer and it was 34 degrees. Once at the top of the ridge I saw a couple hikers who also caught got in the storm, they had put their tents up and were just changing into dry clothes and getting in their tents that were under a bunch of trees. I decided to keep going since I had plenty of hours of light and I was already as wet as I could get. I started down the other side of the mountain and this slowly took away some of the wind. As I walked down the trail, I followed a river of water that was rushing down the trail. I ended up mud skiing at one point where I lost traction and my feet were moving and sliding so fast and I used the hiking poles to keep somewhat control and somehow did not end up face down in the mud. I looked back and it probably lasted about 15 feet. Still amazed I didn’t eat mud.

I found a mini tent city with about 8 tents all real close together on the hillside. They found a semi flat area and looks like they got as many together as possible. I kept on trucking for almost a couple hours when the now rain started to die off a little. I took this chance to find a camping spot and set up my tent about an hour before dark. Within five minutes I was setting up in rain again. I threw everything inside my tent and took off all my wet clothes and ran into the tent. I was able to put on a dry layer of clothes and hop into my sleeping bag.

When I went to see if I had any reception or the weather forecast. My phone wouldn’t turn on. I didn’t know why as it was dry. I took it out of the case and there was some dust in there, but nothing not normal. I spent over an hour trying to do a hard reset and get it to turn on. Nope, its dead. So to see what time it was at night, I would take a picture with my camera and look at the time stamp. It got the job done

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Day 28: Mile 471 to 492   (21 miles)

I woke up to silence. The rain had finally stopped, but dark clouds still circled the mountains.  I through everything in my pack and put on my wet clothes from last night and got back on the trail. I hit the next detour which is because of the Powerhouse fire near Lake Hughes. I got to Green Valley and to the Anderson’s which are some awesome trail angels that take care of a lot of hikers. I just needed to use their phone and get a hold of Verizon. I was able to get my new phone shipped out to me which I will see it in Tehachapi later.

I got back on the detour and road walked with everyone else until I was able to get into Lake Hughes. I ended up staying the night at the small hotel on top of the Rock Inn, which is a popular motorcycle hangout.

While I was upstairs, I heard a piano but it sounded like new music playing. After 30 minutes and countless good songs, I went down and saw a guy playing live piano. It sounded beautiful and decided to go down and have a couple drinks and listen to the live music. A couple playoff basketball games were on, so I finally got to watch some sports on TV. I watched Atlanta and Golden State both win and advance. The piano guy came over to me and another local and asked what we wanted to hear. He gave me a playlist of artists that went back to the 1920’s all the way up to yesterdays music. We had him play some Nirvana cause we wanted to hear that on a piano and then because I was sitting in a hotel in California, it was only fitting to play that song by The Eagles.  (I will post the video of that soon)

I talked to Bugs who was a hiker staying the night as well. We talked about the trail and the rain and sleet we had just experienced. Jamie who was an awesome bartender. She let us use her Ipad so we can go online and check out the water report and rest of the trail that we needed to hike in the morning.  We could of gone upstairs and got the paper maps, but this saved us a trip and Jamie was really excited to help out any way she could. She told us the story about the Powerhouse fire and how close they came to losing the hotel/bar which is one of only a few buildings in this tiny town. Time to get some sleep and keep moving.  (Sadly I think I may of lost all my pictures for the last 5-6 days. That’s when the last backup took place and not sure if the sim card will have anything saved on it.)

Day 29: Mile 492 to 518   (26 miles)

Back to road walking. Good news is I’m about done with detours on the trail unless sometime happens later in this hiking season. Didn’t see to many hikers today cause most that had come through the day before just kept going. Only myself and two others stayed back at the small hotel. I arrived into Hiker Town in the evening and I wanted to get up to Tehachapi so I can get my new phone when it arrives and get back on the trail ASAP. I thought it would be tough to find a ride that far up, but a guy named Richard heard me talking and offered to take me up to Tehachapi. People are so awesome out here. I got into Tehachapi where I was still able to pick up my bounce box in town so I could get a bunch of updating done online that I have been way  behind on. I was dropped off at the Sante Fe Motel which is where my phone is being shipped to.

(Richard who got me to Tehachapi)

I was informed by staff that there was a hiker with two beds looking for a second hiker to split the cost with. I decided to do that and my new roommate for the night was Deluxe. He is from Luxembourg. I wasn’t hungry but I joined him and a few others for dinner and a beer. One of the guys was Forest, I hadn’t seen him since we were in Big Bear Lake!

Tomorrow I will need to stay in town all day since it’s Sunday and mail won’t arrive till Monday.

Day 30:  Zero miles

Today wasn’t exciting at all. I’m itching to get back on the trail and going crazy sitting here. Deluxe left this morning and Amer who also had a two bed room wanted to split the costs for the next night as he is waiting for mail on Monday also. So I packed my stuff up and moved over to his room. He is from Israel and I got to learn a lot about his country and everything that they are going through in the Middle East. It’s a different view from someone who lives there then what we see in the news everyday. This was much better then the news! I learned most of this at dinner last night but clarified a few things today.   We ended up watching Game 7 between the Rockets and Clippers. I’m not a fan of either team and just like to watch good games in general. But the Clippers choked this series away big time!

We went over to the BBQ place and had a good dinner and then just spent the rest of the day being lazy and just looking at maps and planning on how we are going to get out of town tomorrow and back on the trail. It will be easy for him, but tougher for me since I need to get back to Hiker Town which is a ways a way. Guess we will see what happens. Everything seems to work out one way or another.  Tomorrow also marks one month since I left on this amazing journey!