Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadows

135 miles – 5/17/18 – 5/25/18

In my last post I forgot to mention that I was given a trail name, two actually. The first one was “Bloodhound” because I can always find great spots for a break or to set up camp. I tried it out for a couple days but it didn’t feel right. I was then given “Strider” because apparently I can just stride up climbs with my long legs

I spent my time in Tehachapi the same way I do whenever I stay in a town, eating and being lazy. I’ll usually get sucked in to binge watching some reality TV show like Catfish or Naked and Afraid. However the hotel I stayed at had a hot tub and a pool, so that got added into the mix. My favorite place I ate in Tehachapi was Red House BBQ, some of the best BBQ I’ve had in a long time. The town itself was pretty spread out so I got a few rides from the one Uber driver and when she wasn’t around called the taxi company which only seemed to have one car. I was able to tell because one of the mirrors was broken off.

Before heading back to the trail I grabbed some of the breakfast at the hotel, stealing a bunch of hot sauce packets and jelly. The same Uber driver showed up to give me a ride back to the trail where I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in weeks, the creepy guy from the start of my hike. He didn’t exactly remember me and was heading into town which was a relief.

I started down the trail which ran along the highway. A guy that was pulled over on the side of the highway asked me if I needed anything, stated that he had everything I could want, I settled on a Dr Pepper. He told me that he just quit his job and was going on a road trip before finding somewhere to start new.

Loaded up on sugar I followed the trail back into the hills. After reaching the top things became a little more wooded. It didn’t get as warm as I had hoped so when I found a place to camp I crawled right into my sleeping bag and ate dinner.

The following morning I actually slept in! All the way to 7:30am, which is an hour and a half later than usual. After eating breakfast I made the short hike to a spring to fill up a gallon of water. Generally I shoot for a liter for every 5 miles and I was going 20 with no other water sources on the way.

I started out hiking through pretty exposed areas and after a couple good climbs, passing the 600 mile marker, ended up in a forest. I found a spot to camp at another spring.

From the spring the trail winded through a nice wooded area before dropping down to a campground full of people riding dirt bikes and shooting guns. I used the bathroom (always a welcome amenity) and filled up my water. The climb out of the campground went through a burnt but rocky section. At the top there was a great view of the mountains ahead before beginning the desent back down to the desert.

At the bottom I came across a giant water cache, easily over 100 gallons, which was a welcome sight as the next water source was still a few miles ahead with a 2 mile detour. The climb after the water cache wasn’t too drastic on paper but the heat and sandy trail made it less than fun. When I hit 20 miles for the day I was ready to set up camp but as much as I wanted to I was unable to find a good enough spot. I pushed on for a couple more miles and found a nice spot under a joshua tree.

In the morning it was just a handful of miles to the next giant water cache. However, I once again found myself climbing up a sandy trail. Once I arrived at the junction with the water cache I was very excited to see a group of people hanging out under a tent. It was some trail magic! A couple of trail angels were set up with all kinds of stuff they were very eager to have consumed, so I helped. I had a Coke, a Gatorade, a Dr. Pepper, carrots and celery, Pringles and a couple of granola bars. I was now more than ready to power up the next hill, which I did easily.

At the top I stopped for a nice long lunch before heading down the back of the hill. On my way I ran into the trail angles from earlier hiking up! They said there was a surprise at the bottom. I headed down the switchbacks and at the bottom I spotted one of their coolers filled with soda! I drank another Coke and a root beer.

The next bit of the trail was wooded and a bit grassy before joining with a very worn dirt road, which was not very fun to walk on. I followed the crappy dirt road to a campsite with a somewhat creepy cabin. For the first time in a while I decided to set up my tent instead of cowboy camping and settled in for the night.

After a few miles of morning hiking, with a few great views, I arrived at Walker Pass ready to hitch into Lake Isabella for the day. However, this proved to be more difficult than I expected. After about 30 minutes of unsuccessful hitchhiking some more hikers showed up trying to get a ride as well. One guy took a ride to a town in the opposite direction. There were no Uber or Lyft drivers to be found, I imagine one could make a killing from hikers alone. I started to consider trying to get a ride to the town in the opposite direction a van showed up to drop off a couple hikers.

The van was covered with all sorts of paint and the hashtag #greatfuldad. The driver was a deadhead that was giving rides while he waited to meet up with his daughter who was hiking the trail. He busted out some paint and markers and told everyone to sign his van, which we did. Afterwards we all pilled in and made the 30 minute drive to Lake Isabella.

I checked into a very basic and outdated motel which I wouldn’t stay in if I wasn’t spending most of my nights outside. The owner was friendly and even kept a hiker box full of random things. Lake Isabella itself, while it had a few good spots, seemed like a notable portion of the population were on meth. Despite this, I decided to spend a second night there as based on what I heard from others the conditions in the Sierras was still causing hikers to bail out and planning on taking a week off before planning on attempting to go back in. I figured another day of rest, and another day for conditions to improve, would be a good idea.

When I finally left Lake Isabella it was early. After waking up at 4:15am I walked a mile to catch the 5:20am bus back to the trail. The bus only ran 3 days a week, three times a day. Not surprisingly the only riders were sleepy hikers. Once back at the trail I climbed back up, this time into mountians. At one point I could look back down into the desert hoping it would be the last time I would see it.

The trail continued it’s trend of climbing up and then dropping back down a couple times before I reached a campsite at the top of one of the climbs. Being in an area with more peaks than hills made me happy and excited to get into the Sierras.

The next day followed the same pattern of ascending and descending before a long winding drop into a valley. I spent the night next to a trickling stream where a bear had been a problem last year. I guess the bear decided to move on because there was no sign of one.

The next morning I hiked the last 10 breathtaking miles into Kennedy Meadows. I’ll be taking a day off here, I can only make it so far north because of snow so I’ll be taking it slow until I meet up with Cristina in Reno. Since I won’t be able to hike that far north I’ll have to bail out of the Sierra and take a bus into Reno.