The Wind – Agua Dulce to Tehachapi

I managed to go over a month on trail covering almost 520 miles without even once considering quitting. The snow on San Jacinto and the intense heat in Cabazon didn’t phase me. I didn’t mind the blisters, aching feet, or stiff muscles. I’d gotten used to eating dehydrated meals and sleeping on the ground. But in this section of the trail, the unrelenting wind really got to me. It roared through the grass until I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. I’d thought I’d be grateful for a break from the heat, but I was wrong. Here’s what happened.

May 16th – Day 34

My sister dropped me off at Vasquez Rocks and I made my way into Agua Dulce, where the trail runs through the main street of town. I stopped by a pizza restaurant despite not feeling particularly hungry. I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity for easy access pizza. I only ate about half of what I ordered, but packed out the rest for my next 2 meals on trail. I continued through Agua Dulce, which is a pretty cute town. It was a cold, overcast day.

The trail left town and climbed through some hills to the north. As I climbed clouds turned to fog and the wind picked up. It wasn’t great hiking weather, so I decided to make camp quickly. Good camping spots were few and far between in this stretch of trail, but I finally found a good one tucked under some trees on a hill. I camped alone again, and it rained a little in the evening.

May 17th – Day 35

After a breakfast of cold pizza I hit the trail. The fog lingered in the morning before eventually disappearing. The trail went around bouquet reservoir through hills with thick shrubbery. Pez caught up to me in late morning and we agreed to get lunch by a bench that was marked on our maps ahead.

At our lunch break Pez and I discussed our plans for the next few days. I had some time to kill before I was set to meet my sister a few days ahead, and Pez was in no hurry, so it would be a few lower mileage days. We decided to camp near a fire station that evening. It was still pretty early in the afternoon by the time I got to the fire station at Green Valley. I was a little worried about mice, because I’d heard from Ghost that mice had chewed a hole through his tent near the fire station only a few days earlier, but fortunately I didn’t have any issues that evening.

May 18th – Day 36

Today I’d be doing my second roadwalk of the trail thus far – a 14 mile detour through Lake Hughes and Three Points to avoid a section of trail closed due to wild fires. Pez and I agreed to meet at The Rock Inn for for lunch before continuing on to break up the roadwalk. At least this portion wouldn’t be as long or as remote as the last roadwalk. The 7.5 miles of trail before the roadwalk passed quickly and I caught up to Pez on the way to the Inn.

Pez and I grabbed lunch and beers at the Inn. We’d read that a local Ostrich Farm was allowing hikers to camp on their property for $5. Although the Ostrich Farm was only two miles away, we decided to head over and see if we could camp there for the night. After all, when would we ever get the chance to stay at am Ostrich Farm again? Pez and I headed to the convenience store to grab a six pack to split because we’d have the entire afternoon free. We headed towards the Ostrich farm, passing some cute (but expensive) houses.

We got to the ostrich farm and one of the owners met us to let us in and show us around. The property was extensive. In addition to about 30-40 ostriches, there was also a cherry farm, a garden area, a stage, a dance floor, an old western town, and a giant teepee. She showed us the bathrooms the farm had built for guests and told us we could set up our tents in the garden.

It was still only about 2 pm, so Pez and I spent the afternoon drinking the beers we’d bought and digging up old photos from our middle school days. The wind started to pick up significantly as the afternoon progressed, but the dirt was hard and my tent pitch was solid. Besides, I had faith that the wind would die down in the evening, as it usually did. Jessica, the woman who owns the ostrich farm, brought us some portioned ostrich egg to eat for breakfast in the morning. We were pumped, and planned to pool our food resources to make breakfast burritos in the morning.

As the sun was setting Keebler (formerly known as Christine) and Baby Bigfoot (formerly known as Ma) arrived. They were very excited to be at the ostrich farm, and as Jessica showed us around she invited us to sleep in the teepee if we wanted to. The wind was still picking up, so we decided it was a good idea. I took down my tent and moved all of my stuff, excited to stay in the beautiful teepee. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready for bed we started to see more and more mice crawling in, around, and even on the walls of the teepee. I really didn’t feel like setting up my tent again, especially at night and in the wind, but the threat of Hantavirus and potentially being dive bombed by mice in the middle of the night eventually swayed me, and we all moved our stuff back to the garden area. My second tent pitch was not as good as the first, but as the wind was raging and the light was fading fast I had hoped that it would hold.

I’d told Baby Bigfoot that I was confident the wind would die down, but it only got worse as the evening went on. At one point the wind had ripped out the back two stakes of my tent and collapsed the support pole, but I didn’t notice for several hours because the wind kept my tent open like a wind sock, with the back edges flapping in the wind. Needless to say, it was a very sleepless night.

May 19th – Day 37

I got up before 5:30, windblown and exhausted after a terrible night of sleep in the wind. The winds were still blowing strong, so I took down my tent first thing and got ready afterwards, a reversal from my usual morning order of operations. The highlight of the morning was the ostrich egg breakfast burritos we made. With green onions, cheese, summer sausage, and taco seasoning the burritos were without a doubt the best breakfast I’d had on trail to date. Despite the wind, I was so glad that I’d stayed there, if only for the ostrich egg.

I started the roadwalk around 7:15. I had 11 miles to go before I’d meet my sister and her boyfriend at the end of the roadwalk to hike the last seven miles to Hikertown. Much of this roadwalk was uphill and into the wind, and I found it less pleasant that the first roadwalk, despite being shorter and flatter.

About a quarter mile from the end of the roadwalk my sister drove past me. We had great timing! I finished my roadwalk while my sister and her boyfriend, Chris, put on sunscreen. Because the 500 mile mark was in the road closure someone had made a new one right at the trailhead. I snapped a photo to celebrate the walking 500 ish miles.

The 7 miles between the end of the closure and Hikertown were not particularly pretty, and depending on which side of the ridge we were on it was either incredibly hot or incredibly windy, but Chris and Katherine never complained. The last mile exposes great views of the valley and the trail becomes a dirt road through some cow fields. Pez was ahead of us. As he walked through the cow fields an entire herd of cows ran away from him. “Maybe they heard about how many burgers he eats” Chris joked.

As we rolled up to Hikertown in strong winds I think Pez summed up the place the best when he said it was “really shitty, but in the best way possible”. Hikertown is on private property. The owner built a small western town with bungalows and hiker ammenities. Most of this section of trail is on private property, so it can be difficult to find a place to camp. Hikertown let’s hikers camp and sleep in the bungalows on a donation basis. Pez and I had hoped to snag a room because it was incredibly windy, but all rooms were taken. We hung out with Zod, Legs, and No Meli for a while as Hikertown volunteers offered us fresh fruit and snacks. Zod, Legs, and No Meli had gotten a bungalow and we’re sleeping in shifts in it all day. It was currently Wiggles’ turn. Zod joked that he probably had lice after laying his head on the pillow, but he was so excited for a nap that he didn’t care.

A Hikertown volunteer recruited Pez to help out in a “movie” he was making. We were very confused as to why, until someone explained that this volunteer has owned a movie production company since the 70’s. Apparently this volunteer frequently makes movies in the western backdrops of Hikertown and has hikers help out so that they can list his production company on their resumes as industry experience if they want to break into Hollywood. I’m not sure if Pez has any intention of getting into the movie business, but he can now list “prop guy” in his resume if he wants to.

Katherine dropped Chris off at his car before picking me up to go to dinner with my parents and my cousin who happened to be in town for work. My cousin was recently married, so it was great to be able to celebrate with him. Winds continued to blow hard all afternoon. As I was getting ready to head back, my Dad mentioned that a cold front was blowing in, and that it would be 15 degrees cooler the next few days. I was grateful for cooler temperatures, as the 49 miles out of Hikertown are known to be some of the hottest on trail. He did warn that there was a wind advisory in effect, but I didn’t think much of it.

When I got back to Hikertown Legs, No Meli, Zod, and Wiggles (formerly known as Kelly) were getting ready to head out. Despite the forecast for cooler temperatures they planned to night hike this section of trail to avoid the heat of the day. They were equiped with glow sticks and energy drinks and were excited, despite the wind. Pez and I started looking around for sheltered places to set up camp, but there didn’t seem to be many. Keebler and Baby Bigfoot were planning on staying in the room that Zod, Legs, Wiggles, and No Meli had slept in during the day. They invited Pez and I to sleep on the floor of the tiny room. Despite the tight squeeze, we agreed. Even indoors, the wind was so strong it shook the tiny room and I didn’t sleep very well. I finished a quick blog post while I was up late, restless. I had an alarm set for 5 am, as we were planning on going 24 miles the next day.

May 20th – Day 38

After a second sleepless night in a row I was not feeling ready to hike in the morning. It was COLD and the winds were fierce. I started hiking in my puffy as I headed out towards the trail. This section of trail follows the LA Aquaduct, first as it flows channelized, then over a pipe, and finally covered under concrete. It’s flat, and usually very hot, but on this day it was just incredibly windy.

When I got to the section of the trail that has hikers walk on the large pipe of the aquaduct the wind was so strong it nearly knocked me over. I had to walked leaning sideways into the wind to be able to stand upright. A car on the dirt road next to me stopped to ask if I needed a ride. I thanked him, but declined and kept going. I looked ahead and saw that hikers in front of me had given up trying to walk on the pipe in favor of the dirt road. I moved to the road and found it slightly more sheltered, so I stuck to the road from then on.

The winds were strong and it was cold all day. A brush fire ignited in the distance and quickly grew as the winds spread it, but was extinguished within a few hours. I caught up to Pez a few miles before the Cottonwood Bridge water cache. We agreed that it was a boring, but not miserable day.

At the Cottonwood Creek Bridge Pez and I took a long lunch break with Keebler, Baby Bigfoot, Stretch, and Sister. We hid behind a concrete structure to try to get out of the wind. A trail angel came to stock the water cache and gave Pez a buff to help him keep his hat on in the wind. We finally continued on around 4.

We continued on through the wind farm. As I got over a hill I heard a “Baaaa” to my left. I looked over and saw a large herd of sheep. Behind them was a shepard with 3 border collies and 1 puppy, a sheep dog in training. It was really interesting to watch the dogs herd the sheep. They’re very good at their jobs.

I had hoped that the canyon where we planned to camp would be a reprieve from the wind, as the plains we had been walking through all day had been incredibly windy. My hopes were dashed as I crested a hill towards the canyon and the wind nearly knocked me over. I couldn’t believe that the wind could be so strong that I couldn’t walk upright. It was a slow, frustrating crawl the last 2 miles to the canyon. My walking pace was often as slow as 1 mph as I fought uphill into the wind. At one point I stopped and looked behind me and almost wanted to cry at how difficult it was. Finally around 7 I got to camp as the sun began to set.

The canyon was crowded but it wasn’t any less windy than the surrounding environment. I tried to set up my tent, but the ground was incredibly hard. It was impossible to get a stake in more than a fraction of an inch. I tried using rocks instead, but in winds that strong I knew that rocks wouldn’t hold. I gave up and decided to cowboy camp, despite how much I didn’t want to. I still didn’t have a groundsheet, so I’d need to camp on top of my tent again as the wind tried to blow it out from under me.

I knew I’d have trouble getting my stove to light in the strong wind. Pez offered to let me cook in his tent. As we ate dinner, I complained repeatedly about how much I didn’t want to cowboy camp and how sick I was of the wind. Pez offered to let me sleep in his tent for the night to escape the wind, and I accepted. My intention hadn’t been to complain until he offered, it just worked out that way. I was grateful to be in a tent but the wind still whipped the walls all night. A fine layer of dust blew in through the mesh and covered everything, including my face. I did not sleep very well that night, either.

May 21st – Day 39

The wind never calmed the night before and blew just as hard in the morning. It was a very cold morning and we shivered in the wind as we packed up camp. While I’d intended to hike about 17 miles that day, camp, and hike 8 more into Tehachapi the next, we all agreed that we’d rather get into town that night. We decided to hike the 17 miles to the first road into Tehachapi and get a hotel room. After days of unrelenting wind and no sleep I couldn’t wait for a respite from the wind. Just as I was ready to set off it started snowing. Yes, snow, at our campsite at 4800 ft in what was supposed to be one of the hottest parts of the trail. It just goes to show how unpredictable the weather can be on the PCT.

The wind blew through my gloves as I hiked and my hands felt numb. The winds were strong, but manageable in the early morning, but as we climbed higher it got stronger and stronger. We heard reports from Zod, who was ahead of us, that there were gusts of up to almost 120 mph on the ridges. Finally the winds become so strong that forward progress was almost impossible. I knew that I had a night in town waiting for me, but I still couldn’t manage to move at a pace faster than a crawl in the wind. The winds blew me into bushes each time I took a step because they were so strong. For the first time I started to understand how mountain climbers can be blown off mountains.

The winds were without a doubt the worst I had experienced in my life. I passed a thermometer at a water cache that read 45 around noon. Even at mid day, I was absolutely freezing, and it was the kind of cold that sinks into your bones. My hands were numb. I’d pray that around each turn the winds would get better, but they only ever got worse. I felt so demoralized after days of being blasted by wind. The wind was worse than the heat. When it’s hot hikers can hike at night to escape it. There’s at least a 10 hour reprieve from heat, but the wind had been constant for days. There was no way to escape the wind in this section, and it wore me down.

Pez and the rest of the group were quite a bit ahead of me and I felt so defeated. I just wanted it to not be windy. I hoped for a bailout point and at the same time was glad that there wasn’t one because I didn’t think I’d be able to convince myself to repeat this section. Even the prospect of a zero day couldn’t get me moving faster. I couldn’t imagine voluntarily hiking in winds like these again. After days of being cold, windblown, and sleep deprived I stopped and took a break to cry. Finally, after the most miserable day of hiking I’d had to date, I got to the crossing at Tehachapi Willow Springs Road.

Now I had to figure out how to get into town. There was a list of phone numbers of trail angels willing to give rides to hikers, but I didn’t have any cell service. With no other hikers around and no way to call anyone I decided to try hitch hiking. I wasn’t too excited about hitch hiking alone, but I didn’t have many options. I’m sure I looked pretty wind blown and crazed after the day that I’d had, but I kept at it for about 15 minutes until a car stopped to give me a ride into town. I asked the driver how she could live somewhere so windy. She said that while it was usually windy, it was almost never this windy.

I joined Wiggles, Zod, Pez, Legs, No Meli, Keebler, and Baby Bigfoot in their hotel room once I was in town. I was SO grateful for the hot shower I had there before we got barbeque for dinner. That night I finally slept well, glad to be out of the wind.

May 22nd – Day 40

A month prior I had planned to spend the 22nd with some friends from High School. We were going to have a girls night at a house in Tehachapi where my friend Katie was house sitting for her dad. It worked out perfectly that I happened to be in Tehachapi that day! My sister picked me up from the hotel and we met Katie and her fiance Udit for breakfast. Afterwards we went back to the house and I got to do some laundry.

My friends Sage and Jessica arrived later and we had a great time catching up. We each made a “signature cocktail” for each other and rated everyone’s drinks. I made cosmopolitans and they won the drink competition! It was a great evening and exactly what I needed.

May 23rd – Day 41

Katherine drove me back to the hotel where we picked up Zod, Pez, and Keebler and headed to the trailhead. Our plan was to “slackpack” the 8 miles of trail we hadn’t done two days earlier to get to Highway 58, where most people enter Tehachapi. It was windy, but much less than it had been in previous days and I really enjoyed the easy hike through the hills.

We got a ride back into Tehachapi from a rather eccentric taxi driver. I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for food for the next stretch and resting. The next portion of the trail will be particularly remote, but it should be pretty as we start to say goodbye to the desert and head into the foothills of the Southern Sierras. With any luck, there will be less wind.

Until next time,

Megan “Fire Ant” Spencer