Agua Dulce to Tehachapi

Hello from Tehachapi! We are enjoying the fruits of our consultant labors using hotel points to luxuriate in a Fairfield Inn. It's hands down the fanciest place we've stayed since we started our hike. It feels good.




The night before we left Agua Dulce, Stephen and Sofia drove in from LA to hang out with us! It turns out it was a Friday (we had no idea) and we were less than an hour from LA. Stephen rocked up in LA casual - jeans, collared shirt and a sweater. He stood out like a sore thumb from the hiker trash that was Hiker Heaven. One hiker walked by where we were sitting and said "looking sharp." It's funny to think that typically we'd look the same, more prepared for a night at a nice restaurant, not rocking a 4-week beard and a down sweater. When we were driving to dinner at a Mexican joint nearby, we pulled over to the side of the road to pick up Jim who was wandering by himself and corraled him into joining us for margaritas and Mexican feast. It was fantastic to hang out, and great to share this crazy experience.








Two years ago, we started our hike in Agua Dulce. Our hike was surreal, fun and completely different from our prior experience. The biggest change was the weather. Back then it was hovering in the high 90s to 110s during the day, this time it barely broke 70 at its hotest. The other big thing is that our legs are so much stronger than they were then. The first 24 miles from Hiker Heaven to Casa de Luna (another trail angel home) we'd done in two days back then. This time, we cranked it out in a very short day. We started at 9am and were done by 4pm.


It was cold!


During our time in Agua Dulce, we had a margarita-fueled lunch with Thirteen, Adam and Amber. We decided we'd stay until we all had trail names. We only partially succeeded. It turns out that Amber is a bit of a slow riser, so Adam brings her coffee and breakfast every morning (ahem) to help mitigate the bear. Hence her name: Little Bear, or Lil Bear. Adam is named for his favorite trail animal to date: Horny Toad. He hasn't fully embraced it yet. But there's nothing like a little public repetition to help :)








Listening to Lil Bear and Horny Toad, Jenny and I decided to kick off this section with 5 Hour Energy. The last time I had tried the stuff I was sitting in Meyer Library at 4am trying to finish writing about the formation of Mali's government after the 1991 military coup. It turns out that a shot of caffeine got us GOING for the whole day. We spent the beginning of the day swapping stories about the outdoors and living abroad. They met while working as raft guides in Montana. Lil Bear told us all about a terrifying motorcycle accident in China, while I shared the story of our taxi crash in Koundara and Tristan's motorcycle accident in Sierra Leone.








After 14 miles we came across a sign for burgers. Hiking on weekends near cities is the best. A family of three was making burgers for hikers on the side of a small road. The dad had gone for a hike in the Mojave and stumbled on a desperately needed water cache. He decided to drag his family out there to pass it forward.



Ten miles later we arrived at the road to hitch to Casa de Luna. After 20 minutes of kicking it with 5 other hikers, a local packed us into her car like sardines and took us to the famous Hippie Day Care. Terri and Joe Anderson are famous trail angels who put their distinctive inprint on the hikers they care for. Everyone must wear a Hawaiian shirt the whole time they are there. Every evening for hiker season Terri makes taco salad (i.e., nachos), and every morning Joe makes pancakes and coffee. There are futons in the drive way, coolers filled with beer by hikers, a huge white sheet for hikers to sign their names, a rock painting station that helps decorate the property, and
a magical manzanita forest in their backyard with little nooks for hikers to sleep. It's a one of a kind spot. They used to maintain an awesome water cache, "the Oasis," where we had camped in 2014 but they had to take it down because of a complaint.

Casa de Luna




The manzanita forest


Indeed


Yep


Taco salad fixings


Pancakes


Hawaiian shirts!


Where the name Luna comes from


We sat with a group of hikers drinking beer and reading "Bedtime Stories" a collection of romance stories out-loud in a circle. You read until you crack a smile or burst out laughing. For whatever reason, this is a not uncommon hiker game. It turns out a guy sitting across from us, enjoying the craziness and laughing about unemployment after the trail joked that he was networking for a job at McKinsey not having any idea that we actually worked there. After we laughed about that, we kept chatting and it turns out that he was a college debater and we share a few friends from my brief foray into college debate. Go figure.

Kicking it on the couch with Thirteen and Horny Toad while Lil Bear looks on


The next day we walked 27 miles through a section that had been closed in 2014 to get to Hikertown (indescribable place but the bottom line is that they have water and camping). We wanted to make sure we could walk across the Mojave floor early the next morning to take advantage of the colder weather, and we are now on a deadline to get to Horseshoe Meadows in time to meet Breakfast Sandwich. We had memories of Hikertown being a frankly creepy spot (think abandoned movie set combined with a trailer park in the middle of nowhere), so we were thrilled to see more than a dozen hikers there when we rocked up as the sun was setting. We had been hiking aggressively enough that we caught up with Nick/Boy Drogo, Garfield, Pizza Taxi, Skywalker and others. Bob, the proprietor of Hikertown, was a friendly guy, and the experience was decidedly less creepy than we'd remembered.

We made it to 500! Lots of markers








The next two days we walked through interesting bits of infrastructure: first, the LA aqueduct, and then a wind farm. The aqueduct was a harrowing walk for us two years ago, with 110+ degree heat and absolutely no shade. This time around we started walking with warm hats, gloves and wind shirts on. It was cold. What?

Looking down into the Mojave floor


Foothills before the floor


Heading down towards Hikertown


We survived the siphon, a terrifying suction of the open aqueduct down a pipe into a lower section. According to Jenny it's the scariest part of the PCT. It is the stuff of nightmares.




Speaking of nightmares, Jenny's feet took a turn for the worse as we walked along the closed aqueduct (water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink). We'll leave it at that since some of you might be squeamish.

Jenny resting the foot



Me just napping on the aqueduct


Luckily our foot troubles subsided once Terri Anderson drove past us, on the aqueduct, to shoot us with a water gun, then give us cold soda and candy. The woman is incredible and totally gives her heart to hikers.


We slept amongst giant wind turbines right outside a sign warning us about electrocution. We hope by camping on the other side of the sign, we were safe. The white noise was excellent for sleep it turns out.

The turbines








The next day we hiked up into the Tehachapi mountains and out into yet another wind farm. We ran into large groups of hikers at the two water sources, and decided to push into town. Given that we were surrounded by turbines, we shouldn't have been surprised that it was extremely windy.


We waited on the road trying to hitch for a while. After 15 minutes or so, a car stopped. We put our bags in his trunk and immediately realized it's a rental car. This got our spidey sense up... Usually our hitches are with locals who know the trail and have been giving hikers rides for years. We took a look at the guy and decided to risk it. And we're glad about that! The driver, Mark, is a consultant from Colorado who loves to backpack. Basically, our twin! He was even staying in the same hotel. After cleaning up and buying some Epsom Salts for Jenny's feet, we went to a nearby pizza joint and shared some beers with Mark as a thanks for the ride.




This morning we moseyed over to pick up our packages at a motel. We had FIVE!! Four from friends and family, along with our resupply box. THANK YOU Alex, Lindsay & Josh, Bev & Ed, and Mom & Dad for the treats, baked goods, and thoughts! Fortunately the next section is a long one - we'll have plenty of time to make it through the awesome treats you all sent! We also are sharing some with our "hiker family," as good karma like this deserves to be shared. So much deliciousness to carry us through the next section.

The next section is our longest yet, about 140 miles, to Kennedy Meadows. Kennedy Meadows is the end of the desert and start of the Sierra. Hikers are starting to post reports going through the mountain passes. Our takeaway: it's snowy, amazing and challenging. We have ice axes (thank you Barrel Roll!!!), microspikes, and a layer or two coming. The internet and cell situation in Kennedy Meadows is a bit uncertain, so you may next hear from us in Bishop.


A grab bag of pictures:

Between hiker heaven and casa de Luna


Sandy, like Turcs and Caicos


On the aqueduct


Snake! Aqueduct! Wind mills!


Mojave floor


Our campsite by the turbines


Flowers


Walking through burn


Drama

Wrightwood to Agua Dulce

Hello from Hiker Heaven, a trail angel house in Agua Dulce -- about 45 minutes from LA. They don't call it Hiker Heaven for nothing ... This place greeted us with a bedroom, a warm shower, laundry, and tons of hiker friends. We've landed in paradise and plan to stay forever. Well, we would stay forever, but the hosts (The Sauffley's) institute a two-night maximum because they know people would linger indefinitely otherwise.




The yard at Hiker Heaven. Somehow we got here at the exact right time, and so Mrs. Sauffley gave us the one and only bedroom!



Resupply central!



The ladies got lucky last night - massages while we waited for dinner.

From Wrightwood, we just completed 85 more hot, desert miles. Before we left Wrightwood, we hit up the local bakery and did some serious damage in their day-old baked goods section. Justin and I each got maple donuts and we also got a massive cinnamon bun. We then rode up to the trailhead with Dora, a former PCTer who was back in California to get a PCT tattoo. Turns out Dora knows our friend Jay (trail name: "Stabby" - no idea how such a gentle friend got such a scary name) through the thru hiker community. Small world! It was early evening by the time we got to the trail head.

I had immediate regrets about the cinnamon bun. It was super heavy, so I was trying to eat it right away (carrying the weight in my stomach is somehow easier than on my back). But we started with a steep ascent up Mount Baden-Powell, which was leaving me breathless - and especially with a mouthful of dense cinnamon deliciousness. I finally conceded defeat and asked Justin to share it with me. Given my love of baked goods, that did not come easily.



The walk up from the road.

Our goal was to get up and over Mount Baden-Powell that night. However, it was getting cold and windy as we continued gaining elevation, which meant that we'd want to make it down decently far on the other side before camping for the night. While we were still on the ascent, we saw a beautiful site with a great view. We still had another hour of daylight/twilight left, and easily could have pressed the miles, but we reminded ourselves that we're forgoing a combined 12-months of salary for this experience. Sometimes, it should feel like a vacation dammit! So we dropped our packs and commenced taking sunset pictures and making miso soup. The next day we spoke to other hikers who camped just after the summit and they reported it had been a miserable night. We tried to keep our gloating to a minimum.



Sunset from our campsite.

The next morning, Mr. Cohan-Shapiro got up earlier than I had ever seen (early morning flights exempted). The alarm went off at 4:45 am!!! We scurried up the final miles to the summit and got there at something like sunrise. We ate our maple donuts as a celebration and then started the descent because BRRRR it was windy and freezing up there.



Sunrise wicked early the next day



Some snow on the way up. Training for the Sierra??!









Celebratory donuts at the summit.



Above the clouds.

The next two days were kind of a blur of beautiful but steep high-country desert. To our LA friends: we highly recommend checking out Highway 2 through the Angeles National Forest. It was really beautiful. One day, there was another mini trail closure - the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog is endangered and the Forest Service doesn't want hikers tromping all over their habitat in a brief stretch of trail. We gladly walked on a road for a few miles to give these little guys a break.



Road walkin'



Cool tree. It's fun the be at high elevations in the desert - still no water, but it's cooler and there are trees!



Dope wildflowers

During these days, we passed the time discussing corporate inversions, tax loopholes, and exactly what a hedge fund does. Justin challenged me to define what "shorting a stock" means (something I certainly learned in the first year of business school). I got the first half right - it's what you do when you think a stock is overvalued. The second half of my definition, however, involved time travel, at which point Justin stopped offering partial credit and just started laughing. I welcome you all to email me your best definition, because even after reading Investopedia right now, I still find a pithy definition a bit out of reach.

As a side note, I'd like to call out the fact that we spent two DAYS talking about corporate inversions and tax loopholes as illustrative of exactly how much time we have out here.



Another great tentsite.



Foot travel welcome. Which is fortunate because that's our only method.



Cool pinecone #1


Cool pinecone #2


Thanks for the fancy crackers, Mom!

The next few days were tougher. In the desert, you have to be constantly aware: aware of snakes (and of the infinite lizards, birds, insects, and other things rustling and rattling in the bushes that might be snakes), aware of prickly cacti jabbing out into the trail, aware of where your next water source is and how you're tracking your water consumption toward it. At mile 400, we added a new variable to the equation: the dreaded POODLE DOG BUSH. Yes, this adorable sounding plant is actually the worst. It is native to Southern California, and grows in areas that have been damaged by fires. From what we understand, it's like poison oak times 1000. Many people who come into contact with it end up at the hospital. For 40 miles, it was everywhere - in huge bushes on the sides of the trail, in sneaky baby plants right on the trail, in dead/decaying bushes rotting in piles. The person who walks first on the trail has to take on the major cognitive load of keeping their eyes open for PDB, calling it out to the second person (whose view is obstructed), as well as watch for all the normal variables (which we really boil down to one critical thing: rattlesnakes). We barely talked for long stretches, we were so focused. It was honestly exhausting, and a huge relief to reach mile 441 and exit the burn area. We know there are a few more PDB stretches ahead, but hopefully the worst is behind us.



Poodle dog bushes.



Poodle dog growing in the middle of a seemingly landscaped plot of land at a forest service fire station.



The desert trio: poodle dog on the left, hot sun beaming down in me in the middle, and a snake above my shadow. Constant vigilance.

While poodle dog is the worst, eating on the trail is the best!! Before we left, my girlfriends all gave me spices to keep trail life exciting. We've used Alicia's furikake to dramatically spice up ramen and Emily CP's sriracha packets to add some kick to, well, everything. We've got more coming in the boxes ahead and can't wait. Especially eager to get Lindsay's Cajun seasoning and see what it does to Mac and cheese. We are also having a hilarious time eating delicious foods of ... Argentina. Over the holidays, we did a backpacking trip in Patagonia and fell in love with some of the backpacking food we bought there. So we obviously brought tons home. We're in the Mojave desert, making limeade with Argentine drink powder, eating "letras" alphabet soup, and keep a good stock of "caramelos" candies in our pockets every day. We also love having our dehydrated veggies. The other night, we camped with a friend. Coincidentally, we were both having instant mashed potatoes for dinner. Our friend just added water to the packet and ate. Ours, well, ours had brussel sprouts, red and yellow peppers, lentils, jalapeño, parmesan, cheddar, red pepper flakes, and smoked salt. Eating is the best part of every day.

Another thing we do so much more of out here is read. At home, while we both read before bed each night, it can take weeks to get through a book. Here, we typically read during all of lunch and again once the sun goes down, so we get through books much faster. I've read a trio of books about death - Being Mortal, When Breath Becomes Air, and The Short, Tragic Life of Robert Peace. I highly recommend all three, though perhaps not in such close proximity. It's been a little dark. I think the new Jonathan Franzen book, Purity, is next for me. Justin is working on Robert Peace right now, which is fun because we can talk about it. I maintain Oswaldo is the hero of the book, Justin is still trying to decide.



Justin looking for a campsite.



Justin desperately seeking a signal so he could send an email for one of our wedding vendors.






Vasquez Rocks as we approached Agua Dulce.

The other thing (besides reading and eating) that we're doing a ton of is talking about the snow in the Sierra. In just 250 miles, we'll be done with the desert and starting the most technically challenging part of the hike. We've had an uncharacteristically cold spring with a few late season storms, so it's not going to be a walk in the park (ohhhh get it? It's a pun! Because traversing the Sierra is technically a walk in Sequoia/Kings Canyon/Yosemite national parks!!). Folks ahead of us seem to be in three camps:

A. Forge ahead with ice axes, crampons, and snow skills.
B. Get off trail for a while to wait for the snow to melt a bit
C. Skip ahead (some all the way to Oregon!) to keep hiking, with the intent of doing the Sierra later in the summer.

Our friend Timmy C., alias Breakfast Sandwich, is joining us for the first ~100 miles of the Sierra. We're hoping in the next few weeks the snow level has decreased enough that we can forge ahead with crampons only. But we're watching it carefully and seemingly talking of nothing else with other hikers.

And that brings us to Hiker Heaven. There's a scale here that reports we've lost 10-15 lbs each. Hopefully our wedding clothes still fit! I'm working hard to combat that right now by eating 1200 calories of cinnamon rolls from my sleeping bag while writing this.

This is where we started our 2014 hike, so the next 850 miles will be somewhat familiar. We can't wait to start them and see what we recognize, what we don't, and how our perspective has changed. For one thing, I could probably define "shorting a stock" in 2014. The next stretch includes the infamous Mojave floor, the LA aqueduct, the even more venomous Mojave Green rattlesnake, and very limited water. Here we go!!!!!