You people!

This week has been amazing! You guys all were so kind with the outpouring of love for my birthday week!!!! It's always weird being away from family and friends for a birthday, but I realized I was with a best friend, so many new friends, and all of you fine people made your presence known too, so it was a truly great birthday!

Let's give the typical chronological updates. So last Saturday we finally got back on the trail and hiked 6 miles uphill to a beautiful ridge for the evening. The sunset this night was absolutely insane! I summoned my last bits of energy to run to the top of the hill to get a semi-decent photo and realized these moments are what this whole experience is about!

Sunday we woke up in super thick fog and tried to wait it out before hiking. In the end the fog kept us cool and comfortable, and when it finally lifted we conversely got super hot, go figure. We plowed on to do 15.5 miles this day, and the 'highlight' of the hike was being rattled at by a rattlesnake. I learned this day that I'm not nearly as brave as I think I am... Conversely, Casey was smiling from ear to ear after this encounter. I will say, it was kinda cool, but mostly terrifying. Anyways, the hike concluded by catching up to some forest firefighters who were training, and having a nice chat with them. Eventually, we finally reached the house of another trail angel. The Anderson's require everyone to adorn themselves in a Hawaiian shirt upon arriving, and then you can set up camp in their secret garden. They have acres upon acres of forest land for people to camp in, and it's so amazing (it's also laden with hilarious pieces of art)! They also make dinner and breakfast, so we had a nacho feast with our new friends and enjoyed the evening. Oh and they request you sign a sheet with your trail name, see below. 

We left the Anderson's on Monday morning and had to get around a fire closure, which conveniently the detour went through Lake Hughes where we had mail to pick up. After arriving to the post office, and the postal worker telling me "Oh, so you're the popular one!" I walked out with SO much mail! You guys are sooo kind! I sat outside the post office and happily sorted through my packages! I hate to say, but some of you sent me things and didn't indicate who it was from on Amazon, so it looks like I sent myself packages like so..

So if you're one of the kind souls who sent me gloves, a hat, or anything else anonymously, know how much I appreciate it all!!!! And then I got Kind bars, insoles, and two ridiculously nice care packages from my mom and the other from Elloree! You guys have no idea how important this was to receive, I felt so much love from you all! People were even commenting on the amount of stuff I got, so thank you so so much!

After sorting through my bday gifts, we found ourselves at The Rock Inn, an inn that doubles as a restaurant. We got a ride here from a lady who was also picking up mail, and upon realizing it was my birthday gave the bartender $20 for us all! The day just went on from here with the generosity. We had intentions of getting back on the trail this day, but a few gin and tonics later (that people kept insisting on buying) we found ourselves officially celebrating my birthday a day early. Another fellow hiker was sneaky and bought our lunch too! The amount of love was insane! Then as we were sitting on the patio enjoying the sun and playing cards we met a couple who were super eager to talk about our hike, etc. and then offered to take us to the next trail angel's house, known as Hikertown. So after arriving here, the host of this community gave us a room to ourselves because it was my birthday 😬 People are so nice when they realize it's your birthday, I'm realizing. I never used to tell people it was my birthday, but this year may have changed things for me. From here on out I'm definitely celebrating my birthday week!

We woke up on my birthday exhausted from a long day, and decided to lounge about and wait out the heat of the day before taking off again. We got breakfast at the market and played more cards with the oodles of hikers that started to pour in. The sky started to get really dark and so we thought we'd wait out the storm before hiking. When no storm came, it was time to take off around 5:00. This day's hike was along the LA aqueduct, which made for a flat and easy walk. The sun started to set around 7:30, and it was beautiful! This was the highlight of my entire birthday, was the sunset. It seemed fitting to spend my birthday back in the desert, but amongst Joshua trees instead of saguaro cacti. 

We woke up on the 18th bright and early, all motivated to get to our water source in 15 miles. That said, there was water to be found in 9 miles. We were super fast this day, as we were continuing to walk on the aqueduct, which made for easy walking. After our water break, we found ourselves walking uphill into the wind turbines of this area. It became very evident that the only thing the Mojave desert is good for is harnessing wind and solar energy. We were over this landscape quite quickly. In the end, we'd walked 20 miles and set up camp, but very foolishly chose a spot that was essentially a wind tunnel. After trying to sleep for a few hours with no luck, we decided to try out our hand at night hiking to get to the next water source where everyone else wisely camped. IuSo we found ourselves hiking out at 11:00 and arriving just after midnight to our new home. The point is this wind is unreal, at 30 some odd miles per hour. That said, we did 23.5 miles this day and we were quite pleased with that. 

After finally getting some rest we woke up on Friday ready to conclude the miles to get to Tehachapi. We had 9ish miles to get there, and it was similarly in a wind turbine laden landscape, so we just hustled our way there. We had our typical antics when in town of getting food, and mimosas this time and eventually got a hotel room so we could actually get good sleep and a shower. The day was rounded out with pizza and hot tubbing, and god is it always nice to be in town. 

Yesterday we assumed we'd get back on the trail, but as it were Casey started feeling like she was getting a cold. So in the end we decided to take an unplanned zero here in Tehachapi again. We mostly did errands, like getting more food for the next stretch, and eating food. We made rice in our cooking pots in the bathroom, and after posting a picture of this on the Internet, Liz and Ryan were so so kind to instead order us dinner from a Thai restaurant! A belated and amazing birthday present!!! There was so much food I even just had leftovers for lunch! Our true trail angels from afar 😉

I write today on Saturday as we are again waiting out the heat before taking off to hike again. Tonight is a full moon, so it's a perfect night to do some night hiking. The upcoming stretch is bound to be very unappealing with gusty winds, and very cold nights so we're keen to plow through it quickly. I am so eager to get to the Sierras at this point because nearly 6 weeks in the desert is way more than enough. 

Well so concludes this fifth week of adventuring out here! I again can't emphasize how wonderful all of you have been for my birthday. Between the love from you all, and the love from my new tramily, it truly was a birthday I'll never forget. I even got word two days ago that some fellow hikers, upon realizing it was my birthday, made me a cake and tried to hike and catch up to me with it, but they couldn't find me! How nice can people be?! Luckily, they coincidentally met some other girl who had a birthday on the 18th and she was able to enjoy said birthday cake. For anyone that doesn't have social media, I wrote the mushy post below to try and express how all your birthday love made me feel: "Yesterday was a birthday for the books for sure. I am humbled by the amount of love and support I've received from all of you as I'm on this ridiculous journey, it means more than any of you will ever know. I can't put in to words how impactful this trip has already been, and we're not even half way through. I am eager to make this last year of my 20s a truly great one indeed, and I'm sure these next few months will help set the tone. Thanks again for all of the love, it's felt and reciprocated. Ps. we got to see a beautiful sunset in the Mojave last night with the silhouettes of the Joshua trees, so that was a great end to a wonderful day 💚"

With that, it's back to the trail in an hour and a half for us. Send us all the posi vibes and love that you can so that we're able to finish this final desert stretch without ripping our hair out. Supposedly this next stretch is the most remote, and has the least water as well, so let's see how that goes as well. 

All our love back at you lovely people! Godspeed!

 

One month done!

So today is our one month anniversary! My oh my, where does the time go?! I can't believe we've already been on this crazy journey for a month already! We're a fifth of the way through this madness (hopefully). I only say hopefully because let's see if we still manage to be on track to only take five months, but it might wind up being closer to five and a half. Nonetheless, we're in the 400 miles now and that was fun to see! 

Anywayssss the adventures of the past week have been plentiful! So I'll pick up where Casey left off. We were greeted by Mel last weekend in Wrightwood (which is a beautiful mountain town) and it was so nice to have more visitors! She came baring gifts of cheese and crackers too! Sadly I neglected to take any pictures of our time together, but I promise she came ☺️

We woke up last Monday ready to get back on the trail. We went all of 2 miles and then had to walk on the road due to a closure on the trail to protect the endangered Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog. So after 7 miles of walking on the road we then got to get back on trail. The point of this is to say I'm so curious about this frog but keep forgetting to google it.

We slept the next two nights at fire stations. These fire stations in Angeles National Forest are really friendly to hikers, and that's been great. Otherwise, Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur of brutal sun and heat, and trying to avoid Poodle Dog Bush. This is an extremely poisonous plant, that if you get the oil on your skin you get boils that have hospitalized people. So we missed an alternate route that went around the thick of this shit, and I'm still convinced we'll be dead from boils here soon. Just kidding, it probably would have shown up by now, but it was just super annoying to have missed the alternate route. I also found myself getting really filthy these days as well (see below).

 

Thursday we found ourselves with a short 8 mile trek into Acton. Every time we get to town it's as if we haven't eaten for days. So after going to the post office, we quickly went out for Mexican food. We had intended on hiking back out that day, but we found ourselves at the Acton campground with a bunch of other hikers and instead succumbed to the temptation to just stay. We played bullshit and I haven't played that since high school maybe, so that was fun. We also were woken up in the middle of the night here by lions mating ... turns out Acton is home to a wildlife refuge that the actor from The Birds is responsible for (Tippi Hedren). So that was kind of neat and random and not bizarre at all. Oh and Casey woke up to a mole poking it's head out at her tent! 

Yesterday we then walked all of 10 miles to Agua Dulce, which is a super hiker friendly town as well. We had to walk through Vasquez Rocks Natural Area, which was quite beautiful. Once we got to town, we got lunch (per usual) and then found ourselves at 'Hiker Heaven,' which is where I write this from. This place is like a playground for hikers, as Casey aptly noted. We got to shower and do laundry and enjoyed a campfire. I also got a birthday bottle of wine left for me here from Dave that Casey and I enjoyed ☺️ 

Today we are waiting for the heat of the day to pass before we get back on the trail. This heat has been brutal. And we are avoiding it at all costs! The Mojave is coming up and we're both kind of dreading that. But then comes the stark contrast of the snowy Sierras after that. So in the meantime we are feeding the pet horses here and spending too much money in town. 

All in all we are doing well! As Casey said, trail names are a big deal and we have maybe successfully implemented being called Beyoncé, so that's neat. If that sticks I'll be more pleased with that then being called 'avocado.' It's crazy that we've been hiking for a month now, and sleeping outside for the better part of this month as well. I'm excited about what is yet to come, and that is honestly the biggest motive to keep going because I know we haven't even gotten close to seeing the most beautiful parts of the trail yet. So poco a poco it continues! We still can't say thank you enough for all of the love and support we have gotten along the way, it truly keeps us going. 

I haven't quit yet.

Hiiiiii. JLa has requested that I write in her blog once a month. It probably won't happen, but this post has coincided with a Bloody Mary incentive. Updates:

We've had way more phone service than we thought we would, which has been good and bad. Bad because I'm continuing my social media addiction and good because I get to hear/see my pups and boyfriend I miss so terribly. I guess it's also great for JLa's parents to know we're OK because I don't think they found my knife very convincing.

A surprising number of people have been concerned about my knee, which is really endearing. It's finally manageable - thanks to too much rest and super nice angels giving me oils, wraps, and a brace. Also thanks to JLa for putting up with my dramatic episodes. At one day's end, I threw my expensive sticks down, sat on a rock-couch, and huffed at JLa that I was done for the day. Poor pal was nice enough to clear a couple dead trees for our camp that night because I refused to walk the 0.2 miles to the next campsite. Pretty sure her journal that night read, "Casey woke up salty. Casey continued to be salty throughout the day. Casey went to bed salty." If it weren't for my nightly mashed potatoes I'm sure she would've already sent me home. It has been discovered that dinner time is really the only time I smile. 

Last week, we left our comfy cabin with our beloved Trail Family in hopes that we will soon see them again. It was so nice to hang out with such cool people, because most suck. From there we had our very own personal Trail Angel in Jenna. She brought us food, remedies for our injuries, and drove us way out of her way to pass the fire closures. The Midwestern compassion and Hoosier company was much appreciated. 

Back on the trail we immediately met a super-cute family that gave us high fives for being unemployed and talked about their own hopes to hike the PCT. Though JLa does most of the talking with all of our encounters, it's a flattering change of pace for people to be so interested our daily lives. 

Most umportant update:

We finally walked 20 miles in one day! Our initial goal was to do this everyday. Nope. Fuuuck that. It was 20 miles uphill- the whole time. It also made me come to terms with my psychosis. Poor JLa. Also ( because we were 20 miles uphill), I saw snow for the first time in two years. I was indifferent.

Trail names are apparently a big deal out here. We started this journey trying to avoid them. Avoidance is futile, so we've come up with a solution! We feel if we combine our powers, we could be Beyoncé. If any hikers happen to read this, please spread the word.

In conclusion, this sucks- because it's hard and because I have a bad attitude. That being said, my attitude will change on account of not wanting JLa to kick me off the trail- and this shit is beautiful. As negative as I am, it's still better than any job I've had and way better than watching nature outside my car window because my shotgun wedding kept me in my hometown (shoutout to Planned Parent Hood for my cheap birth control and bare uterus!)

The best part about this trip to date is the amount of love we have gotten. I actually just cried to a letter I read two hours ago making sure we were receiving our morning hugs, and was accompanied by a beautiful new ring. Trail mail love is the best and will keep us going!

Train tunnel

Sweet keepers of the Water Cashe (one was camera shy)

Woke up to this on our tents

Reason to walk

 

My daily smile

We're learning ...

Jenna is the best!

We also walked through wilderness fire-burned areas. Creepy

Wonderland!