KMS – Ridgecrest – Day 125 – Fri Oct 27th

Day 125 – Fri Oct 27th
Ridgecrest – Walker pass Trailhead – Unmarked tent site near walker pass campground
2002.7- 2003
Approx. 20 ft ascent 20 ft descent
0.3 Miles

We checked out late from the Motel making the most of our room before heading to Kristy’s diner for a decent pre-trail meal.
To start we had a clam chowder Sarah had a surf and turf and rice combo and I had a chicken and broccoli pasta dish.

We then headed to the Post Office sending my little fishing rod and gear to Superstar Liz. As we shouldn’t need that anymore in the desert.
We also sent our micro spikes to Big Bear, which is further down trail and a food box to Tehachapi.

Following on from this we went to the back to the Library to try and resolve the problems we’ve been experiencing with updating the blog.
Sarah and I worked well together to try and diagnose some of the issues as the mechanism that we’re using isn’t working well.
There are a number of things that a tricky and clunky that’ adding time onto our town days.
Mainly involving uploading pictures and text content on top of proof reading content and posting.

As we sat side by side both working on the computers a strange guy sitting opposite kept talking to himself + we think he had some form of Tourette’s. Yesterday there was a homeless lady with a dog here as well + we’re kind of getting used to slightly odd characters we meet in the library’s these days.

The librarians here however was spot on! Not only do they help us with any IT issues they also helped us fill up our water bottles.

We then jumped on the 227 bus to Walker Pass via Lake Isabella and were entertained by the driver Anthony, who was a local and lived to Isabella.

He told us how him and his son had found gold in the hills. And due to the exceptionally high snow this year it proved to be a very good year for gold mining. Apparently this was because the excess snow melt and water helped flush out some of the gold from the mountains.

We jumped off the bus at Walker Pass and our plan was to stay at the campground which was only a mile down the trail

The reason for this late start and short hike was we have a 21-mile water carry tomorrow. By carrying a lot of water in tonight and camping close to the trailhead meant that this could be used for our dinner and breakfast. Thus putting us in a good position tomorrow to have enough water to cover the 21 miles.

When we got to the campground we were disgusted to find there was a lot glass in the sand beneath where we would put our tent. We didn’t want to risk any potential punctures and decided to head down the trail to find a better spot.

Far out at highlighted a tent site 7.6 miles away but this was too far especially as we only got on trial around 19:00.

With head torches lit we looked left and right for a flat spot to pitch that was out of the wind.
In the end we found something almost suitable but it took a bit of work to help level the site before we put up the tent. In the end we were both pretty pleased with our efforts!
Because we have a fresh food supply both of our food bags are full to the brim. 1 bag is too heavy to hang with a bear line, let alone 2 bags.

This means tonight we’ve chosen to sleep with our food which is not ideal!

Moving forward we need to ask Superstar Liz to send out our Ursack just like when we started the trail.
I also suspect that there will be less in the way of trees to bear hang food from in the desert, so this also makes a lot of sense.

As we pitched our tent under a full moon we hardly needed to turn our head torches on to see as the landscape in front of us. The beam of light only interrupted by funny shaped clouds passing over the moon, which created an eerie glow.