Pacific Crest Trail (Desert Section) - Leg 6 Agua Dulce to Tehachapi

So leaving Agua Dulce was another warm day. There were a few 20something hikers who decided to do the beer a mile challenge as the next family to host hikers was 24 miles away. They carried their normal packs, plus a 24 of beer. We had a couple of "designated hikers" to look after them through the day, plus look after the mileage to let them know when to drink. I caught up with them about lunch time. They were full on into it by then as they started at 5am. It was entertaining for a while, but I didn't want to wait for them every mile so I hiked ahead. I'm glad they were being looked after as someone could have got really sick and/or dehydrated. Only 2 fully finished the challenge and one was a gal!! The rest of them slept on the trail, but they were OK. The things I might have done 20 years ago!! Had a beautiful rest spot with more trail majic at the Oasis Cache with comfy chairs.



Made it to the Anderson's - Casa de Luna - for taco salad!! They love putting up hikers and have a great big wooded yard that makes for great camping. Frisbee golf to boot!! They are very relaxed and love to have a good party here and apparantly the following night was the only one to witness the Hershey's chocolate syrup wrestling. After wondering about Hikeaholic(Craig) all day, I decided that if he chased one of us down for 2 weeks, we could rest another day and also witness the wrestling so that's what we did. He was very surprised that we were still there and he had just about given up on catching us fully!! That night was quite the party. Mrs. Anderson got dressed in a red leotard with a tutu, angel wings and a red cape. She got another young gal to team up with her. Two very drunk young guys took them on. It was crazy. Mrs. A's idea of wrestling was grabbing at the guys privates and trying to get their clothes off. We were laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. Between that and someone throwing around a cock bunny, the level of entertainments was getting lower. For the record, I did not wrestle and only watched. They were wonderfully generous people and a good place to hang for a day. Did I mention they had other Hawaiian clothes to wear?? Was great to wear anything different than my hiking gear.







The next day the three of us hiked together. We didn't rest much as the wind was cold and strong. Craig didn't like our not resting much and maybe was questioning his motivation to hike with us:). We camped with some car campers who happened to bring a ton of water with them for us hikers!! Amazing as the water source was fine but full of debris and we didn't want to clog our filters. I slept in the next day as we were hiking a half day and I felt like a cold was coming on so hiked alone until Hikertown.







Hikertown is another unique place. It's like an old movie set of a town. A lot of the stores are places to sleep with beds. I stayed in the tattoo parlour. Like a hostel, it had a common area, shower, laundry etc. We were definitely getting spoiled on this leg of the journey!! As soon as I got there, there were people giving us rides to the store/cafe. Not only a ride, but in a 70s Rolls Royce!! My first time in a Rolls and I was in stinky hiker clothes and dirty, not in the evening gown I had envisioned myself in while in a Rolls. It was such a treat!! Plus more good food!! I finally found out that it was me Craig was chasing. It was about time to find out!! This was definitely more encouraging that the fellow back home who was pushing me away as Craig was pushing to catch me. Little did he know how hard that was going to be:). A++ for effort!!



The next day was a hike along the desert floor. We had a late start as we had breakfast with fresh eggs from the chickens at Hikertown. Breakfast was great, but not a good idea to start late when travelling along the desert floor aqueduct with little water and shade for miles. We lucked out as it could have been much hotter and much, much windier!! We eventually found shade under another bridge for a couple of hours until the worst heat was gone. It's kind of fun being hiker trash under bridges!! I was lying on my food bag and the blue dye got all over my face when I slept. It was that hot!!



The next day was a nice hike until the end through one of the biggest wind farms in the US to get to the road to Tehachapi. We weren't going to take a full day off there initially, but did anyways. Free Range's foot was really sore. Plus I knew by then that I would have had to push really hard to get to the next town before heading back to work. I chose to do the slower option so I'd have a few rest days before heading back home. That night was the first game of the Stanley Cup Final series between Vancouver and Boston. It happened that Craig grew up in Massechusetts so we were duking it out during the game. We won the first game while we were watching at the local pub. I was the only person cheering loudly. Didn't notice at first and, then, didn't care when I did so cheered again! Had a great relaxing day in Tehachapi.