Monday, May 25, 2026. Sunny, 55 going up to 75.
Up at 6:45. We are doing a reverse Nero. We plan on 10 miles but not starting until 2:30 this afternoon. That gives time for a real breakfast, lots of planning and shopping while we have good internet service at the coffee shop in town, laundry, and other chores.
A lot of folks are headed to 6 Flags Magic Mountain for the day. After that, they will do triple 20-mile days to get into Hiker Town late Thursday or early Friday.
The plan is a big hiker party / night hike starting Friday about 7:00 p.m. People try to hike the LA aqueduct section of the trail at night because it is 17 miles of flat Mojave desert with no water and typically heat in the high 90s and zero shade. There should be about 25 or more of us in this group on Friday. Stay tuned!
It will only take Brad and me 3.5 days to reach Hiker Town. That puts us in sometime Thursday without pushing. Hence our late start today. There is nothing to do in Hiker Town as it’s just a collection of glorified sheds for rent and tenting space with crude showers in the desert. There is a small store with a grill and a hiker lounge about 8 miles down a side road that offers rides to and from Hiker Town. All that means we need to kill Thursday evening and all day Friday to hook up with the big LA aqueduct party. What the hell, it should be fun.
I did laundry, finalized my food for the next 3.5 days, shipped my extra food ahead 8 days to Tehachapi, and pretty much got ready to leave the oasis later in the day. We got a late breakfast at the Cowboy Tavern around 10:00.
After breakfast, I got a coffee and hung out at the coffee shop next door to use their WiFi for several hours. I ordered socks, electrolytes, milk powder, and a new sleeping pad from Amazon to a trail angel’s house in Tehachapi. They will deliver it to me when we hit town Monday.
I also remembered to take care of all the monthly bills back home. I almost forgot about all the real world things that still need looked after.
I used my account to order shoes and a few things for Brad from REI to Tehachapi. For some reason, all his orders keep getting rejected. Must be a cross-border issue or something odd with his Canadian accounts.
I had a long video chat with Pit Crew and a nice call with my mom. Back to the oasis, finished packing, and we hit the trail at 2:30. Packing our 4 days of food and a big bag of Lay’s chips strapped to the back of my pack.
We had a big 5-mile climb in the middle of our 10 miles today. We wanted to knock that out as part of our short day.
We got a lot of water about mile 8.5 (after the climb) as we have 15 miles with no water tomorrow. I carried out 5 liters or 11 lbs of water for cooking and camping tonight, plus for all day tomorrow. Ouch!
We made camp at 6:45 and 9.5 miles. A bit exposed and windy, but not much else around. Fingers crossed my tent stays up tonight.
I want to give another shout-out to Pit Crew and her unwavering support and encouragement for this little adventure. I could not do this without her. This really hit home the past two days as I saw one person quit their hike today, several people are struggling with the mental side of things as well as family issues.
Side note…we know of at least three helicopter evacuations over the past 2 weeks. One of which we saw but didn’t realize what it was at the time.
Side note…we know of at least three helicopter evacuations over the past 2 weeks. One of which we saw but didn’t realize what it was at the time.
In bed at 7:45 and hoping the wind doesn’t get too bad tonight. My tent is not set up very well, and my fingers are crossed.
Technical Notes:
- 3 eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, potatoes 1100
- OJ 350
- Banana Chips (18p, 30g): 150 kcal, 20g carb, 8g fat, 1g protein
- Skittles (2.17oz): 125 kcal, 23g carb, 1.25g fat, 0g protein
- Curry noodles 450
- Dehydrated chicken 170
- Lay’s chips 160×3 480
- Water liters: 3
- Miles: 9.57
- Time: 4:15
- Up: 2503
- Down: 1135
- Calories consumed: 2826
- Calories burned: 1937
- iPhone battery used: 35%
Leave a Reply