700 Miles

‘Ever my heart rises as we draw near the mountains,’ says Gimli the dwarf in the ‘Lord of the Rings’. We recognize the feeling. After over 40 days in the desert, we have finally arrived at Kennedy Meadows, which marks the transition to the Sierra and the ‘real’ mountains.

We started our trip along the L. A Aquaduct by going a few miles out in the afternoon and ‘cowboy camped’ some hours before starting again at midnight. Cowboy camping is when you are just lying in your sleeping bag under the stars. Many hikers do this often, but we usually sleep in our inner tent without the rain fly in the desert. We walked the whole night listening to the water flowing to the Los Angeles beneath our feet, and watching rabbits and desert mice scurrying through the beams from our headlamps.

The next part over Tehachapi Pass goes through one of California’s largest wind farms. There are over 4000 wind turbines, so we hiked for days to the swish-swish sound of rotating wings.

The trail in this part is like the San Jacinto in that it hasn’t been maintained for many years. That means lots of fallen trees, which you must climb over, under or go around.

It is also very hot and there is a long way between reliable sources of water – 54 miles on the longest stretch. It is impossible to carry that much water, so we have to get rely on our hiker app. That’s where those who went before us write comments on which streams still have a little water, and where there are water catches. These caches are established and replenished by local volunteers.

In one of the driest and toughest parts we came to a dirt road where two retired americans had parked their car, and were ready with camp chairs and an ice chest with cold soft drinks. There are not many joys in everyday life that can match that 😎

When we came to Walker Pass, we had run out of food and had to get into Ridgewood and re-supply. Fortunately, this was on a Wednesday, because the bus out here in the countryside only runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In addition to the usual trail food, we could also bring a fresh Subway sandwich. It does taste much better out here on the trail than back home 😃

Our first pair of shoes are worn out now, but here in Kennedy Meadows we had new shoes waiting for us. Sten’s feet have gotten wider over the more than 1000 km we’ve walked, and his old shoes have almost burst. Fortunately, his new shoes are a broader model.

From here, our water challenges also change character – from very little water to quite a lot of water. Both in the form of snow in the high passes and as icy creeks we must wade through. But we are in high spirits and looking forward to the mountains.