In the morning I said goodbye to Coyote. He would get a ride from Hikertown back to LA for his flight home. Fuck, this sucks. I feel for him as well, he was having a blast here and it pains him even more than me to leave. Goodbye Coyote, see you on the other side.
Lavalamp and I unsuccessfully tried to hitch back to Hikertown for an hour before we gave up. The Wee Vill store owner saw our struggle and gave us a ride. He was an interesting character, ex-Amish and a converted christian. When asked why he chose to live here, he said: ‘I love the desert. I don’t like cold, I don’t like humidity and I don’t like trees, so this is perfect for me.’
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who had an active dislike of trees.
‘People say we need trees for oxygen, we don’t. A marihuana plant produces more oxygen than a tree in its entire lifespan.’ He added. Certainly an interesting take.
We made it to the aquaduct where Laura hiked with us for a short part. The aquaduct is infamous for its heat, lack of shade and absence of water. Most people therefore choose to hike during the night. The days before I had heard plenty of strategies on how to tackle it. I loved it, as if everyone was headed out for an expedition in an unforgiving wasteland. The forecast showed us a rare cool spell that would last 2 days, so it made more sense to me to do it during the day, in order not to mess up my sleep schedule. Lavalamp and I made good progress, cruising through the flat parts and the heat of the day. Near the evening we came upon the massive wind farm for which the area is known. Seeing these massive machines whirring right over our heads in the middle of the desert was beautiful and mysterious in a way.
As the sun was setting, we started our final push, me going ahead of lava lamp a bit. Then I found out the real reason why everyone dreads this section: the wind. The presence of the wind farm should have prepared me, but this was more than I expected. I had to use both my trekking poles to not be blown away, taking step after step on the climb to our campsite and water source. Fueled by adrenaline, I arrived at a site that was in no way sheltered from the wind. Someone peeked their head out of their tent and welcomed me, his name was Guardian.
There, I made a big mistake: pitching my tent. During the pitch, the wind got so strong it ripped my trekking pole from its slot in the tent and the tip of the pole punched a hole through the tent fabric. I wanted to shout. Finally, I completed the pitch and to my tent’s credit, it held up during the night, flapping everywhere as it was. The howling wind got so strong it blew dirt inside, through the mesh of my tent. Lavalamp guessed the wind would die down at night. It did not. I barely slept, exercising zen in face of the situation.
Waking up, I had only one goal: get to Tehachapi before the end of day. The plan was to spend one more night before heading into town, but I wasn’t going to stay with this kind of wind. Everyone had some kind of damage on their tent. Guardian’s guyline snapped and Wicked Dinger’s internal tent stakes broke. I was tired, hungry because I couldn’t cook the night before, but motivated.
After 7 miles there was a water cache. The reason I mention it is because it was kind of absurd. Around the water, someone had set up red umbrella’s, a trail log and chairs, which did not fit at all here in the wasteland. Here I took a break and the others caught up to me. Wicked Dinger and Guardian had the same plan of going to Tehachapi that day, so I hiked with them.
The trek was arduous, my feet and body hurting after pushing two days of 25 miles. Guardian was fast, probably faster than me on my best. Calves and Lucas overtook us at a road crossing. They had been at Dudefest the night before. Apparently, the whole endeavour had quickly dissolved once people started taking shrooms.
The three of us made it to the highway where we would hitch into town and all I wanted at that point was a place to crash and sleep. Guillaume had generously offered me to stay in his room, which I all too gladly accepted.
In Tehachapi, we had a burger with Guillaume, none of us being very talkative after the ordeals of the day. Never had a shower and the safety of a room felt better. I slept for almost 11 hours that night.