June 3rd
Tehachapi/Hwy 58(566.6)-N of Golden Oaks Spring(585.6)
Today’s Mileage: 19mi
We left Rockin’s this morning and started hiking around 9am. It was great to have the last couple days at Rockin’s and I even got to eat some leftover chocolate cake for part of my breakfast. Yum! Since the Sierra weather and snow isn’t changing anytime soon, we aren’t pushing to do tons of miles each day. Definitely no rush to get to all that snow and cold temps!
The section we did today is part of the most waterless section on the PCT. From Rockin’s, it was 16mi to the next water source. Then it was 19mi to the next source after that. Nothing too eventful today. There was more winding up and down through the hills and some windmills. During the first half of the day, the hills had a redish pink color that was different from what we’ve been hiking in.
The only main event of the day was that we thought we were at the water source and it was very shallow pools and it took forever for us to get water because I was the only one with a pump and we were sharing it. In this process, I realized that my relatively new Platypus bladder had a hole in it. So annoying! I just got a new one in Aqua Dulce and It may be over a week before I can possibly get a new one. I was able to turn it upside down to prevent further leaking because the hole is on the bottom, but it had already soaked the bottom of my pack and when it’s upside down, I can’t use the tube to drink out of it. I now have to drink out of my old Gatorade bottle and the rest of the day I had to hike with a wet backside because my bag had gotten wet. Annoying…As we finished getting water, hikers Mark and Holly came up. They are a great couple who have been married for probably close to 30yrs. Then some other hikers hiking southbound walked up and let us know the actual water source was around the bend and that it was a good flowing stream. All that unnecessary work at the wrong water source! That wasted almost an hour of our day and we knew we weren’t going to hike much further with each of us carrying about 4L(8lbs) of water for 19 more miles of hiking until the next water source tomorrow and dinner tonight. As it got later, the skies got overcast(which I love) and the scenery got much greener. Reminded me of Portland:)
We found some good camping in a saddle and Mark and Holly joined the four of us. As we were going to bed, we were happy to see 6 more hikers that we’ve been leapfrogging with show up. It was a reunion with Skinny D, Liz, Stumbling Goat, Thumper, Bunyan, and Meow Meow. We really like this group and it’s nice to have them around. When we saw the trail register this morning, we saw that some of the others we were hoping to spread out from only took one day off and are now a day ahead of us. Yay! There is still another group somewhere behind us, but there is hope that we’ve finally spread out from some that we needed space from for awhile. Very nice!
