Day 13: Tehachapi Hills

Start: 526.8

End: 549.0

Miles Hikes = 22.2

Last night I stealth-camped in the desert near the LA Aqueduct. I slept well. I knew that I wanted to cover 20+ miles today so I was up early and hiking by 6am. I was planning on meeting Donna tomorrow (yippee!) in Tehachapi which was about 30 trail-miles away.

Once again, it was beautiful sunrise in Southern California.

And a beautiful morning along the PCT

After about two hours of hiking, I began to see wind turbines. I would hike through this Wind Farm for the next several hours.

The first water source since Hikertown (about 17 miles back) was coming up at mile 535. It’s actually a water faucet provided by the LA Department of Water and Power. Thank You!

Shortly before arriving at the water faucet, I caught up to a super-nice younger couple section-hiking from Hikertown to Kennedy Meadows. That’s about 185 miles. They were carrying eleven days of food! That’s a lot! They had just started hiking yesterday morning from Hikertown – I remember giving them a wave as I arrived at Hikertown. Their names are Roy and Lisa.

As I chatted with them, I learned that they have been section hiking the PCT for several years and that Roy was recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. They have a Facebook page called “The Simpson’s PCT Adventures”. Check it out. They are raising money for the fight against MS – please donate if you can. I definitely will.

They were also nice enough to take a photo of me.

After meeting Roy and Lisa, I continued along the trail and through the Wind Farm.

And slowly began to hike up into the Tehachapi Hills.

I stopped and had lunch at Tylerhorse Canyon. There was a stream that I refilled my water containers.

The afternoon was a steady climb into the hills. It was a very windy day so it was easy to understand why there was a Wind Farm in this area.As I gained in elevation, I could look back at where I had come from over the past several weeks.

As I climbed into the hills, I took a few more photos

There was a possibility of Trail Magic at Mile 549 so I pushed on. I was so happy when I arrived!!!

There was water, fresh fruit and food. There were also camp chairs which I thought was awesome!It was a good evening after a long day on the trail. Thanks for following.