GIANTS, Wind Turbines, and Sand

Sunday, May 11-Zero Day

Because the SF Giants were in LA we decided to take in a game on my zero day. 

I didn't realize our longtime friends, the Rainville's, had a personality defect...they're Dodger fans. 

The Giants won in extra innings. Life is good!

Monday, May 12, Turtle Production Zone

We visited with Mike Rainville's sister, Peggy Campbell in Lancaster in the morning. Peggy has been instrumental in making, coordinating the production of, and delivery of countless hundreds (thousands?) of turtle pillows over the years. The pillows are an incredibly important keepsake for the campers at The Painted Turtle. 

Then it was back on the trail. A long stretch, about ten miles, along the buried Los Angeles Aquaduct. In the background hills the California poppies are blooming, creating huge swatches of orange. 

Tuesday, May 13, I Shouldn't Have

When BSCM, Mike, and Sharleen dropped me off at the LA Aquaduct Monday afternoon it sounded like a good idea to have BSCM meet me at the next good road crossing Tuesday evening. The problem was, it was forty miles of the Mojave Desert, not all of which is flat, between the two locations. 

I got up early amongst a sea of wind turbines. The turbines, and the babbling LA Aquaduct had serenaded me to sleep. 

In this picture you can see a truck on the landing below the wind turbine on the right. That's not a regular sized truck, it's a quite large maintenance truck. The turbines are huge, and there must be tens of thousands of them I passed in the last two days!

They are not called "breeze" turbines, they are called "wind turbines" for a reason. It has been a phenomenally windy few days. They put those wind turbines in this area for a reason. 

When I lived in Madison County, Montana the wind was epic. This wind matches it, except Tehachapi wind is warm, not the "absolute zero" bone-crushingly cold Ennis sometimes (too often) experiences. 

The sand of the Mojave Desert seems nastier to hike on than that of the more southern desert from earlier in the hike. Sand gets in the shoes and requires many stops to clean them out. Many hikers use Dirty Girl Gaiters to keep sand out. These gaiters are shorter, lighter, and more elaborately colored than gaiters I'm used to for snow. I thought all along they were ridiculous. I now see why many hikers wear them. If I were just starting the Mojave Desert now I would buy some (the ridiculous colorful patterns would probably go well with my clown shoes).

Some beautiful flowers, Joshua trees, and Mormon tea almost didn't make up for this long, hot, windy day. I hiked from 4:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. (with a few breaks in the heat).  I hiked more than 25 miles and was exhausted when I showed up at the road crossing with that wonderful BSCM and blue truck waiting. Also waiting was a big batch of chili. All the hikers I meet realize how good I have it with BSCM around. 

I thought of my daughters as they were growing up (and even now to some extent). When they were hungry and tired they could get grumpy and unpleasant to be around. I could feel that devil coming out in me. I know where my daughters inherited this trait. BSCM fed me quickly and had me go to sleep. I woke up Wednesday morning and all was well in the universe again. I shouldn't have pushed it so hard Monday and Tuesday. 

Near the towns of Tehachapi and Mojave (Hwy 58), mile 566. Now more than 1/5 done with the hike.  I'm still Livin' the Dream.  TORTUGA