Day 30 – Taking Lyric to Tehachapi

Posted on June 23, 2025 by TheJessicaness
sunrise at camp

I’m up early at Redwood Meadow Campground, but sadly I’m not the only one. The couple is out collecting more wood to add to their bonfire, with part of a log sticking out of it, while Site 11 is stomping branches into their fire ring. Caleb was worried that I would wake the others but these campers are motivated to keep their fires going, even during quiet hours.

I’m not the only one who’s been getting used to being ready before the sun so we’re able to leave camp as the sun crests its first hill. We drive out, with Gert and Anouska behind us, to some agreed-upon spot in the middle of the desert along the aqueduct to collect some hikers and leave others to continue on foot towards Cameron where they can hitch into Tehachapi or Mojave. Trailer Park, Rachel, and Lyric will meet us at the cars.

down to the desert

We drive further up to see Ravi, now known as Dobby, the free elf, coming down a hill as he tells us he was looking for our car. He has face paint on and a story to tell, but Josh and Seeker climb out of their shady hiding spot to greet us and enjoy soda and stroopwafles, thanks to Lt. Sparkles and Anouska. Trailer Park wants to check on a package delivery at Hikertown and Rachel is excited to return for the dogs, and both want to show us how hiker-friendly this place is.

Trailer Park negotiates forwarding his soon-to-arrive mail while I throw a volleyball for one of the five dogs on the property, this one being the most social of the group. The place looks like a town out of an old western, which provides hikers with a bed in a box, which is the cherry on top after a shower and laundry, whether by hand or machine. Hikers are an easy bunch to please.

Johnsondale Bridge

We decided on lunch at Denny’s in Tehachapi as they still serve breakfast in the afternoon and those who walked out of Hikertown did so last night and have built up an appetite. A majority of us ordered the red, white, and blue pancakes (strawberries, whipped cream, and blueberries) and Trailer Park also ordered a burger to make his meal a brunch. We have agreed to stay the night here and hike out tomorrow afternoon.

We are able to get our rooms next to each other at a hotel. Once we’re all cleaned up and clothes hand-washed, I will take Trailer Park and Rachel to Walmart to resupply. Lyric is along for chocolate milk and ice cream (even though the room has no freezer). I set a time limit for Rachel, but it’s Trailer Park, I’m going back inside for, as he’s got a small cake for Caleb’s birthday tomorrow.

Anouska near the aqueduct

Once we’re back in the rooms, I’ll wait for all the necessary repackaging so that the trash can be bagged and the packs one step closer to being ready for tomorrow before deciding on where to spend some time together that isn’t the rooms or in the busted chairs by the pool. I mention the Dog House Saloon but their patio looks like it’s in full sun, so we drive to Savannah’s Old Town Saloon.

The bartender lets us know the pool tables are open but the kitchen is not (they don’t have one), so Gert will take Anouska to P-Dubs Brew Pub so she can eat. We joined them after a few more rounds, enjoyed dinner (while they played arcade games), and instead of bowling thought we’d return to Savannah’s for darts.

dog at Hikertown

Not sure if a timing issue or maybe the owner was on the premises, but this time she was asking for IDs (to make sure we were all 21+), so we returned to the room to sing “Happy Birthday” to Soccer Mom, then had a slice of blue and white cake.

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Day 29 – Meeting Anouska

Posted on June 22, 2025 by TheJessicaness

The good thing, or not, about having to be dressed, or not, and not pee in the middle of camp is that you teach yourself to hold the urge longer than you’ve ever needed in the morning (unless you have siblings, one bathroom, and no woods or fenced backyard). Rachel and I also use this time to pack up our bedding, but that wasn’t the plan this morning. I didn’t want to get up in the dark.

I waited half an hour, usually only done in class or on the road (in traffic), before I left the tent. I return with the intent to sleep more but I’ve already taught myself to get dressed and get moving. Caleb is already in the car to be out of the wind, so we drive to my blogging spot to warm the car up and wait for the sun to rise. We will have breakfast there and return to camp to watch the animals frolic in the morning rays.

Anouska and Lt. Sparkles

We walk the trail before the day-use crowds arrive, have a snack, and collect parts of the tree left at another site in case our guests from the Netherlands want a fire later. Gert “Lieutenant Sparkles” and his wife, Anouska, who has achieved the National Pentathlon Cross at least ten times, want to spend some time with his trail family before a vacation in Los Angeles and a return flight home.

We are delighted just for their company, and their quick quips that prove their English proficiency, and grateful for the stroopwafles (straight from the source), even if we can’t pronounce them correctly. We take them on the Trail of 100 Giants and they are like kids with their energy and curiosity. It’s enjoyable to be around such a fun and smart couple, a type we seem to be surrounding ourselves with more these days.

I talked with a grandma on the trail because I noticed so many people in the same shirt, and she let me know that 22 family members made the trip, minus one grandson. Perhaps when our nieces and nephews are older we can do some awesome nerdy family activities that we didn’t have the money for growing up. Back to camp to set up tents, have soup, dinner, tea or coffee, and more stroopwafles!

We sun ourselves on the warm rocks and listen to the witch’s cackle from the picnic area and have a laugh ourselves. The guys will go to collect more water and when I see two people destroy a mouse’s home, I offer the firewood we have and let them know site 11 has more. There’s so much wood here, if only they knew better which to collect, as people have already damaged the environment so much for these animals just trying to keep up. 

Lt. Sparkles

Darin comes by to thank us for being great camp guests and asks if we need anything before he takes his weekend off. We thank him for the hiking recommendations and kindness. Back at the table, I learn that Anouska is the fourth sister and that all their names end with A. She will happily go to bed first, excited to be camping in America, as we stay up another hour learning more about mountaineering from Gert.

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Day 28 – Parker Meadow

Posted on June 21, 2025 by TheJessicaness
Soccer Mom taking in the view

Caleb is getting water from the creek when I find him. I help carry it back to camp and then we walk and watch the birds and chipmunks around us. There is a phone signal some four miles from camp, so we drive there so I can edit and publish posts. I’ll get a bunch of writing done while we move between the sun and shade as the temperature changes throughout the day.

Soccer Mom finding a good campsite

We stop at Parker Meadow and get to see Search and Rescue training in action. The tent and vehicle setup is similar to movie depictions, but the permission to throw rocks or use bear spray on the people running around in red shirts is only in real life. We see a bunch of four-wheelers and up on the hill, we hear, “I was fucking around with everyone else’s, I didn’t even put it in four wheel drive.” Each driver will wave as they pass.

SAR Basecamp

We meet Red, one of the sheriff’s office’s trainers, who is looking forward to finishing her last 200 miles of the PCT with her husband Grizzly. We continue up the sandy path that sends little particles onto our pants and into our noses with every step. It seems more obvious here but it is also what happens every day on the PCT, which I’m sure occurs on other trails but I’ve never felt so dirty as I do walking through the desert.

The day-use lot and any campground spot are taken, as is the space near the entrance, when we return. Caleb will move the full-lot sign barrier as Darin recognizes us and calms a guy wanting to know where to go.. perhaps park near a no-parking sign like other vehicles on the road. We attempt to walk the trail in the afternoon but the amount of human traffic is too much.

SAR trainees

We will go up the road and explore a softer sandy road down a decline to see more big trees, hidden in a valley, and plenty of piles of dead wood just waiting to burn in the next wildfire. We find an abandoned five-gallon shower bag in need of some repairs and it feels good to rinse my hands, even though the chipped polish shows how dirty my nails are, after a seven-mile day.

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Day 27 – In a Loop

Posted on June 20, 2025 by TheJessicaness

We’re up before the other campers and take our time on The Trail of 100 Giants while we have it to ourselves. We will make the over-hour-long drive into the town of Ducor, at 39 mpg, so that we have enough gas to make it up these hills. It’s another 13 miles to the Chinese Food Factory in Porterville where we can sit in the shade for two hours before Caleb is ready to return to the trees.

Music is rare these days, mostly because of choosing to hike without it, but also the choices available when the radio picks up a station. On our return, I will hear “One Minute Past Eternity” performed by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1969, and I think of how much Caleb loves me, just a bit more than the coast redwoods of national park fame. We got 39mpg going downhill but forgot to check the other direction.

Sequoia cone

With the picnic table back in the sun, I’m free to write offline. Caleb will get into the tent to read more comfortably after we watch a dad try to run over a tree. I’m glad it was there, though, or he’d have driven into our site. I watch the son move the car, again, but this time to air up a queen mattress to fit in their yurt with bunk beds and a futon. We’ll take a break from reading, writing, and people watching to stare at trees across the street.

roots of one tree are the size of another tree

We nickname our evening entertainment Timmy Tacticool due to the way he parades around his site with army reserve gear and a rude dog. He was sure to bring charcoal, wood, and gas, and to pick some grass to help start a fire. I have a visit from an aphid of the striped variety and a possible mayfly before we get in the car as the sun goes down. It’s too cold in the shade, even with my jacket on (though I can sweat in it while hiking).

The mosquitoes come out at night, so I can’t leave the car door open for fresh air once our hot breath has warmed the interior. This will get Caleb back in the tent, and I will be there shortly after. The wind has blown dust under our rainfly and onto our sleep gear. I suppose it’s no different than climbing in after a day of collecting dirt on the trail. Everything is always dirty.

return to Redwood Meadow
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Day 26 – Southbound for a Day

Posted on June 19, 2025 by TheJessicaness

When we decided to section hike, we still wanted to help our new trail family complete as many miles as they could. For this reason, there can be a lot of planning that goes into making sure people are where they need or want to be. The group that didn’t stay with us got a ride to Aqua Dulce, which is where we will start and walk south. Ravi doesn’t want to miss these miles either, so Caleb will drop him back at the resort to walk north.

Caleb and I wake at 330 and I go upstairs, after calling all three of them, to make sure they’re awake at 4am. We stop for a gas station coffee for Trailer Park and are dropped off at Vazquez Rocks Natural Area in the dark. According to the rest of the group, I will sprint through the first half of our morning, which considering I was planning to make it to the resort by 10 and got there at 815, is an accurate statement.

It’s still cool out and without a jacket on, I will need speed or elevation to keep me warm. This area used to be a neighborhood in the 1920s to 1960s, but with death in the family came ranch sales and separation. There are a few other trails out here, so I appreciate them being well-marked. I’m not used to being in front, so I wondered if the others had taken an alternate route.

Jess in tunnel, as seen by Lt. Sparkles

As the sun lights up different parts of the rocks, their shapes start to emerge. Gert will see a dragon and catch up to me after the dark tunnel that runs under the Antelope Valley Freeway where I make an echo and he yodels in response. Rachel is in the lead when we pass Ravi going the other way. I know we can’t be but three miles away from the resort, and we’re all ok if Caleb chose to stay in the room and nap before picking us up.

Jess hiking, photo by Lt. Sparkles

Trailer Park finds a Toy Story balloon and looks like a kid out on a birthday hike. I’m so glad that anger and sadness seem to have less space out here as we’re not bombarded with the troubles of modern-day society, just gifted with the positive amenities it provides (like ice cream sandwiches!) We cross the railroad where just before it is a plaque noting the completion of the PCT in 1993.

Trailer Park and Lt. Sparkles

Over the few mosquito creek crossings and Caleb is talking with Troll at the resort. How did he get here? Oh well, Gert grabs his resupply and we’re on our way to a second breakfast at Cowboy Tavern (hiker-friendly) in Aqua Dulce. Caleb says I averaged 2.8 mph. I was motivated to skip the desert heat. We drop Trailer Park and Rachel off at Serenity’s Oasis after visiting with Farmer John, earning a local sticker, and waiting for Ravi to arrive.

roads to Sequoia National Forest

Rachel and Trailer Park have decided to night-hike the next section because they want to do the aqueduct, something Gert was looking forward to as well, but he has decided to wait in a hotel in Palmdale for his wife to fly in. We have chosen to spend the next few days in the woods somewhere and Rachel gives me a sachet of rose lemonade tea to try, since she hasn’t yet.

Joshua trees

We drive north past layered rocks and burned Joshua trees and stop at Stine Cove to put our feet in Isabella Lake. The water is cold, and the wind is blowing; it feels great.  It will take over an hour to wind our way along 37 miles of Sierra Way. We stop at Holey Meadow first, and though the camp has no water, it is teeming with mosquitoes. We drive 2.5 more miles to Redwood Meadow, another dry and very dusty camp sans stinging bugs.

Lake Isabella

Caleb will pay for four nights while I visit the gift shop, they have stickers! Darin is in his eighth season of running this camp and his wife helps in the shop. Their dog, Sid Vicious, a Rottweiler-Chihuahua looking mix, keeps an eye on their site and ensures that other dogs know he’s there. We drive to California Hot Springs (population 50, meaning not much town, just farmers) just to burn gas and time and decide to turn around before dark. Dinner and bed shortly after (as is life on the trail).

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