I got up quite fast even though everything outside was covered in mist again and my tent was wet from the outside. I left the tentsite around 7h00 as I saw Sharkbait walking past me so I would have someone to speak to before the next watersource.

 

The watersource was only 2 miles away and there should be a dead snake in the cistern. Not the best conditions to start the day…

 

Luckily someine took the snake out and the water was perfectly clear and cold. It was difficult to reach, but with our trekking poles and a bottle of Gatorade we succeded and got water for the next 13 miles.

 

The mist was still there 3 hours later and the wind blew cold air in my face. It’s hard to believe that I am only 10 miles from the desert and here everything is green and cold right now.

 

 

After leaving the forest the sky cleared up and I could see the desert… and the mountains where I have to get over after the desert…

 

 

The downhill part did not hurt my shin which was great news 🙂 but as soon as I got into the desert, the heat started to rise and rise. 6 more miles and I arrived at hikertown.

 

 

The guy runbing the place showed the freshly arrived hikerd around and told us that today wasn’t that hot and that we will have 5 degres Celsius more the next day and another 5 more the day after. Very bad news for me, who doesn’t like the heat at all.

 

 

Nevertheless I got a shower and washed my clothes, which felt amazing! 🙂

 

Manuel and Julia had arrived and we called the local Grill & Market to get a ride to their place. We had burgers, hotdogs, icecream and sodas there before we got a ride back.

 

 

We charged our phones and left around 19h00 to do some more miles before the sunset.

 

 

We walked along and over the Los Angeles Aqueduct, one of the more monotoneous sections along the trail.

 

 

We cowboycamped next to the Aqueduct where a few mexican guys trained their shooting capabilities. They stopped after we arrived and left, so we had a calm fade out for the day.

 

But the wind was howling and blowing hard the whole night. I could barely get sleep and I was happy to get up at 5 to continue hiking before the heat would set in again.

 

It was extremely cold because of the wind in the morning and I had to wear my Puffy-jacket and my bonnet to be warm enough to walk.

 

The sunrise I walked into was gorgeous, but soon the heat kicked in and I had to take of some clothes. At about 8h00 it must have been 30 degrees and I thought that I would need to get up even earlier the next day to avoid more heat.

 

 

3 miles before the bridge under which I wanted to rest a car stopped next to us ( I caught up with 2 other hikers ) and offeres us ice cool Ice-Tea. After a short conversation we set of again for the last hour before my break.

 

There was a faucet next to the bridge which was perfect because I wanted to have a rest there.

 

The rest took 6 hours and I even slept a bit. But I had to get out again and do a few more miles. The next watersource was 6,6 miles of uphill hiking away and it was a real torture to get there.

 

It was still extremely hot and there was no shade at all during the whole climb.

 

 

I was able to see the whole way the place where the water should be and its horrible when you just aren’t getting closer while hiking towards it…

 

I arrived at the source around 19h30 where I just set up my tent, got in and fell asleep right away without having dinner.

 

 

Leaving the dinner away was not to smart because even though I set up my alarm for 4am and snoozed it until 6am I had to get up because I was hungry.

 

It took me 17 minutes to eat, get my backpack ready and pack up my tent. New personal best 🙂

 

 

I was hiking pretty fast and caught up with Manuel and Julia who were both ahead of me.

 

After 2 hours of climbing I saw this beauty showing up around a corner.

 

 

An oasis in the desert, coke, cookies, fresh fruits and shade. The perfect place to stay for breakfast 🙂

 

But we had another 10 miles to hike before Tehachapi so we only sat down for 20 minutes.

 

The sun was hitting us hard and there was almost no shade to hide and it was still a long stretch till the temperatures would reach their peak.

 

 

We passed the second largest windfarm in California with over 4700 windmills, amazing to see that many windmills so close to eachother.

 

 

We ran into Coppertone for the third time and got some more Rootbeerfloats 🙂

 

And yes, my toenails are still pink from my first week on trail, but I have nothing to get the color of…

 

The hitch into town was easy and we got a room in a Best Western with a swimming pool 🙂

 

After a quick shower we went out to have lunch.

 

 

On the way to get there we met a hiker called Quick Sticks and he had lunch with us. It is just great how easy you meet new people everyday from different places all over the world and you have so much to talk about without knowing them.

 

After lunch which we had at 16h00 because of the late hitch into town we got ourselves a beer and went back to our hotel to do the laundry.

 

3 hours after lunch, Manuel and Julia were heading out again for dinner but I had stilö enough from lunch. My hikerhunger still hasn’t kicked in after a month…

 

Tomorrow we’ll have to do the resupply and we wanted to get back to trail in the evening to nighthike the next 25 miles because there will be no water…