Mexico to Kennedy Meadows South, May 9th to June 11th (a retroactive post from June 12)
The desert was wacky, eclectic, and dusty.
I immediately saw that I had an advantage with a background hiking in Arizona. In just the first two days, I found other hikers who were struggling with the heat and not drinking enough water. There were some hot days, but I think we got lucky for a May start as there were few days over 90 degrees F. In fact, the amount of harsh, cold weather surprised me for Southern California. We hit a bad wind storm in the San Jacinto Mountains and a cold snap in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Water wasn’t as sparse as I had feared nor as gross. We didn’t need any dirty cow ponds. The largest water carry was actually day 1 with 5 liters for 20 miles because I wasn’t relying on caches at that point. I did rely on caches between Tehachapi and Walker Pass because that would have something like a 35 mile carry! Even so, water is heavy, and I did my best to “camel up” at water sources, drinking a lot at the source to try to minimize how much I would carry. The watering holes were certainly social spaces, locations where hikers would converge for a break.
I formed a tramily (trail family) almost right away and have been hiking with them the last few weeks. They’re great (see other blog post). I got sick for a week about 10 days in, which was not ideal, but I still managed to get through it and keep hiking.
The scenery was striking and could change three times in one day. Vegetation included cacti, pine trees, oaks, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers. We climbed many ridges and descended into countless valleys with sweeping views in both.
I’m starting to get a little tired of backpacking food. Town food is amazing, especially salad and pizza. My tramily always picks up hummus and veggies in town. We’re a very veggie forward group, inspired by Walrus. It is fun to just eat however much I want but also a lot of work to eat enough.
My feet commonly hurt depending on the day. I accidentally bruised the tops of my feet by tightening the laces too much, but I think those bruises are finally healing. I’m onto my second pair of shoes. I’ve been blessed to have gotten only one very minor blister. Some people have blisters so bad they need ibuprofen.
“Trail magic” is confounding and sometimes the best thing ever. At a water cache between Tehachapi and Walker Pass, Old Yeller pulled up with bananas, oranges, apples, beer, sparkling water, chips, cookies, macaroni and pasta salads, and chicken! Then he proceeded over a beer to tell us a bunch of stories about his trail magic and the area.
Sunrise is my favorite time of day. We’re usually in bed by sunset. We usually hike 10 miles by 10 am, sometimes more, and these days hike 25-30 miles per day. We’ve been making a lot faster progress than I expected. I’ve only used my tent 5 times. We always cowboy camp if we can.
There has been more cell service and more towns than I expected. It’s been fun to have trail visitors including my friends Shari, Grace, Phiwat, and my parents.
Hikers are fun and wacky and funny, and anything goes out here. Stories run like rivers up and down the trail among us; e.g. some will always know Mother Teresa for the tall tales of Trekking Pole Gate 2026…
Completing the desert is a big milestone! Onto the beautiful Sierras.
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