June 6, 2012.
Day: 13 Daily Miles: 46.5 Total Miles: 577.75 Hours Hiking: 20 6:45am-6:05am
Listen to the audio journal above or Download June 6th Audio File Here
Day 13
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| Windfarms at the end of the Antelope Valley crossing. |
June 6th, day 13. I spent
the night, well kinda of two places. But the coordinates for where I
stopped the day 0386625E 3893631N. I stopped at mile, or no, the day
stopped at mile 577.75 for a grand total for the day of 46.5 miles.
Lets see, I started off at about ohh about 5 miles away from the
Cottonwood Bridge and the water source on the big desert section,
hike on the aqueduct. I took it easy actually for most of the day,
just hiked at normal pace, didn't really try and push it fast. I knew
there were ups and was just kinda happy with wherever I got really.
So it wasn't terribly hot, it actually really nice. The wind was
breezy, the temperatures probably didn't get really above 75-80 and
it was great. I passed about, ohh 15 people or so, most people were
going to go into Tehachapi or Mojave. The windmills were everywhere,
that was kinda of the slowest part was weaving through them. The
actual valley or little foothills before the climb coming off the
aqueduct since 2009 has been filled with windmills, that was a big
change. But I got to Highway 58 with water, I was hoping for trail
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| Windfarms just west of the town of Mojave, before Hwy 58. |
magic at a bunch of places, but there was just water, which was nice
because of the big long dry stretch and I didn't want to carry a lot
of water. I had 3 liters and every time I found a water cache, I
would drink some and keep my water intact. That way, I actually made
it the 25 mile dry stretch with only 3 liters, and probably only
drank 2L, that was overnight too. That worked out well. I powered up
the hill after Highway 58 in REALLY strong winds. I had taken half a
caffeine pill so that helped a lot, but I knew it would, thats why I
did it. Otherwise it would have been painful. I saw sunset as I was
climbing up, the lights of Mojave, Lancaster, California City, all
glowing out in the desert. I crested the ridge and got to see the
lights of Tehachapi. I made it to about mile 44 for the day and it
was probably about 10pm and was just feeling tired and hungry.
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| Sunset from atop the climb after Hwy 58. |
Yesterday I was actually hungry ALL day and it never went away. That
could have been because the night before I did not really have a
dinner right before I went to bed. We'll see if the HUNGER has
started yet or not. I'm hoping not. But if it is, it is, no big deal,
you're just going to be hungry for the rest of the time. I went to
bed, I had planned on trying on getting up early and making it a few
more miles, maybe in the middle of the night, just to cut down on
some more miles – get a little rest and make it a bit further. But
I didn't wake up until 5am. I made it 3.5 more miles to get my 46 and
that was the end of my day. Not just going to keep on trucking.
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| Day 18 Panorama - Looking W-NW just after Chicken Spring Lake. |
