June 5, 2012.
Day: 12 Daily Miles: 45.5 Total Miles: 531.25 Hours Hiking: 16 7:15am-11:30pm
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Day 12
June 5th, Day 12. My 12th
day on trail. Lets see, I camped out at 0366221E 3858229N and I made
it 45.5 miles for a grand total of 531.25. Ohh where to start. I
camped out at the what was previously called the Red Carpet cache at
Lake Hughes road. It was windy through the night, I slept on sand
which was nice. In the morning I didn't get a very early start, about
7:15am, which is late actually, but I made great time, I was headed
to Hiker Town, so that was my goal for a resupply. It was windy and
cold. There is kind of a ridge walk, you're in the trees, but on the
side of the mountain, but near the top of the hill/the ridge you're
walking on. For a good 4-5 hours there was 10-20 mph winds and it was
like 40-45 degrees out. Needless to say, I was in my jacket. But the
sun came out and the clouds dissipated, the views opened up down
towards the Antelope Valley and Lancaster, and it turned into a nice
day. By the time I got to the crest and started heading down towards
Hiker Town, it probably about 70-75 degrees, a light breeze, nice and
warm. I met like 14 hikers on trail which was neat, I mean it was
nice to finally meet more people. I basically just chatted with them
for a few minutes here and there. One guy named 'Raisins', he's
trying to do a speedier hike, in 3 months because he
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| Just before dropping down into the Antelope Valley. |
has to make it
back to school, so he had a billion questions, which I didn't mind.
He actually caught me once on the trail heading to Hiker Town, and
just as I was leaving Hiker Town he was arriving so he had a few more
questions. Coming down the mountain was fine. It seemingly took a
little longer that I was expecting to get to Hiker Town, but so be
it. I spent 2 hours at Hiker Town, resupplied, showered, did hand
laundry while in the shower, repacked all my stuff and found some
stuff in the hiker box to chow on before I headed out. I talked to a
bunch of people, that was fun. I wish I could have stayed, it would
have been a nice night. It was SUPER windy out on the flats of the
Antelope Valley where I have to walk alongside of the aqueduct. I
left at 7pm all bundled up and kept going until about 11:30pm along
the aqueduct which is just a dirt road walk. Not too much excitement
out there. I got to see the sunset, the stars came out for about 2
hours before the moon rose directly over Lancaster which was awesome.
It was full and started out kinda as this oblate disc,
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| The start of the LA aqueduct walk. |
kinda
squished. It was bright orange above the orange lights of the city
lights. For about 20-30 minutes it stayed this bright orange color
and slowly because a perfect sphere as it rose above. For the rest of
the night it was a bright white ball hanging out in the sky. I had
plans on trying to make it to the Cottonwood bridge, but I didn't
quite make it. I made it to mile 531 instead of 535 where the water
spigot is, but no big deal. I actually just got tired and found a
berm on the side of the road and kinda just hoped over the berm,
threw out my pad, put my pack down and went to sleep {quickly}. It
wasn't anything special. It was still windy so in the middle of the
night I got my ground tarp out and put it under my feet so I could
take my shoes off. That was about it. It was a good day all around. A
little later than I expected, but no too shabby for a resupply.
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| Day 17 Panorama - At about 10,000 ft at the southern end of the Sierras. ~12 miles from Kennedy Meadows. |
