Tehachapi – Acton – Day 136 – Tues Nov 7th

Day 136 Tues Nov 7th
Agua Dulce – Porch outside Mexican restaurant – LA RV Resort – Acton
2200.8 – 2210.7
Approx. 1516 ft ascent 1785ft descent
10.4 Miles

Needless to say I had a terrible night’s sleep + I guess this is an insight into what it’s like to be a homeless person sleeping on the hard-cold ground.

Although waking up outside a Mexican restaurant lying on the floor was certainly a novel experience.

We had left over Mexican food to eat for breakfast, but to be fair I wasn’t feeling well at all. I had a bad tummy + it felt like someone had punched me square in the stomach. 

Sarah readily polished off the Mexican left overs and we grabbed a couple of Mochas from the Cowboy Tavern opposite the Mexican restaurant.

We had initially planned to stop at Aqua Dulce and possibly hitch to Acton from there to resupply. Although as Slide pointed out it would be a much simpler hitch from the LA RV Resort to Acton if we pushed on a further 10 miles.

Sarah, Smiles and I hit the trail around 09:30 + starting out I felt pretty terrible, feeling a little bit under the weather and sorry for myself.

My foot was also hurting bad again and even Slide was hobbling around like an old man. It always seems to be the way first thing in the morning whilst our bodies accept they have another day of hard grind.

Even Smiles had been feeling ill and our suspicions were that he thought he might have contracted covid. As he was talking about going into a docs to get swabbed.
Last night he had bought some gin purely for medicinal reasons.

As we walked through Agua Dulce in the daylight, it proved to be a far more affluent town compared to some of the other towns we’d walk through. With many properties either looking like Mexican villas or horse ranches.

The next section of trail as we left the town involved walking through Vasquez rocks which featured some unusual rock formations growing out of the sand.
This area was used as a film set for a number of movies including Star Wars and it was pretty cool walking through.

As we wind our way through the pylons up and down towards the highway to Acton a raven flys overhead making sounds similar xylophone instrument.

We’ve learnt some cool tricks from Smiles over the last section that we aim to try and apply some of them to our hiking strategy and method.
He has a spreadsheet that looks at calories per ounce as well as calories per dollar which is a smart way to resupply, when time allows.
I’m sure we can use this and further optimise how much food we carrying and how much we’re spending on our resupplies. Sarah also loves a spreadsheet.

He also has a much more efficient stove than us which is something I’m keen to investigate. This mean faster boil times and less Isobutane gas needing to be carried.

When we get to Acton I will need to contact Nemo about my damaged sleeping pad. Hopefully they can send out a replacement as they have a lifetime garantee. Although I think this may be pushing my luck as they have already honored this earlier on the trail.

My Topo trail runners have also done nearly 500 miles + Sarah is also in need to an upgrade.
We will need to go online and see what we can musta as I don’t think the small town of Acton is likely to have many shops.

We are also still carrying some extra winter gear from the Sierras. If the last section is anything to go by we should be able to shed some more weight from our packs.

It would be good to apply all of the above in these closing stages of the hike as reducing weight and increasing efficiency and comfort will only make things easier on our bodies in this final push.

We meet Smiles at the Highway just before LA RV Resort.
We had planned on heading into Acton, but as usual plans on a thru hike always change.
We walked into the Resort which was a large camp ground, with permanent static motor homes, tipis as well as tenting options for hikers.

Slide had arrived an hour or so before us and was sitting outside in the shade waiting for us to arrive.


The ladies on the desk Amy and Serena could not have been more helpful.
Amy also gave us a free soda and snickers ice cream on the house which was very well received.

Within the space of 5 minutes they arranged for a larger than life trail angel called Kevin to come pick is all up and take us wherever we wanted.
Instead of taking us to Acton we opted for the larger town of Palmdale as it had a Walmart and would make a large resupply much easier.

Kevin was a real character and kept us all amused on the drive to Palmdale as we drove through the San Andreas fault. It was a thoroughly entertaining journey and he told us how he had been a music producer for some of the big stars (including Whitney Houston) and other big names.
His story telling was as fast as his driving and he seemed thoroughly convincing + I have no reason not to belive his tales.
If he was telling tales he must have an amazing imagination + we couldn’t see how he could just make up some of these things on the spot.
As we approached Acton he swerved off the road into a pull in to show us a large animal sanctuary owned by some famous Hollywood star called Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith)

Kevin dropped us at Walmart in Palmdale and let us shop for an hour or so.
The 5 of us raced round the store making sure that we fully resupplied and got a few extra treats. Including some tasty Teriaki chicken tenders, a can of Mexican chilli for later and some ice cream.

After finishing our shop Kevin then took us back to the camp ground. Smiles, Sarah and I decided to stay for the night, whilst Slide hustled back onto the trail.

We all sat in the warm laundry room for most of the evening until late as we needed to wash our stinky hiking clothes. It was also toasty warm inside and was a better option than sitting outside in the cold.
Serena kindly let us heat up our chilli and chicken in the staff kitchen and we ended up having quite the banquet.

Smiles and I found a wooden gazebo structure and he decided to cowboy camp underneath.
Sarah and I opted for the protection of a drapping willow tree for our tent site for the evening, as it was predicted to be very windy later.
Also after sleeping on a flat air pad on the concrete floor last night, I didnt fancy a repeat performance sleeping on the wooden gazebo floor.

We set our tent up in the dark + both of us were exhausted. I am also starting to come down with a cold or something. Smiles had been under the weather for the last couple of days and I think I may have picked this up.