We’ve been hitting some big milestones on the trail! We crossed the 500 mile marker, obviously while singing The Proclaimers. Later that day, we walked up and down and around these hills, all while in view of the highway that we were eventually to end our day. They have a saying that on the PCT, that you can see where you’re headed, but it’ll take you hours to get there. That’s because the PCT is graded pretty well, so there’s lots of switchbacks. This is really nice most of the time. However, if you see a road that you know will take you to cheeseburgers and soda, and then don’t approach it for over an hour, you’d be less grateful for them. At least I was.

This particular road brought us to Wee Ville Market and we got there in a big, old Winnebago that picked us up from the trail. At Wee Ville, we stayed for free in the backyard, got free showers, and the cook/angel woke up to make us breakfast at four in the morning.

Well fed and ready to go, we started the infamous LA aqueduct section, through the Mojave desert. Usually, this part is horribly hot, dry, exposed, and generally awful. In planning beforehand, we’d decided to night hike it. Luckily, we had a cooler forecast, only about 85 degrees. Since this is probably the flattest section of trail, we took advantage by singing Cher and Sir-Mix-a-Lot, among other things. Even though it wasn’t as hot as it could have been, we took a long break in the shade under a bridge, looking thoroughly disreputable.

The newest girl band of the PCT

The next section was through a windmill farm, one of many that we’d pass through in the following days. It was a good place for them. Walking through them on the ridges was pretty cold and I was buffeted by the wind for the last few miles until the next road. That day, we’d left camp at 5 and did 17 miles before one in the afternoon. I was rewarded by being in the first car, as the amazing trail angel’s first words were, “Hope you don’t mind a couple of dogs!” Did I mind?! Those dogs were so cute and very chill. They sat on our laps and one was very insistent on licking the salt off our faces. We got to Denny’s and began carbo-loading and then didn’t stop for two days. Tehachepi had a lot to offer and we stayed long enough to gain back some pounds.

Now less than 200 miles from the start of the Sierra section, discussions of snow went back and forth among hikers. At the start of the season, the snow levels in the Sierra were well below average, around 30 percent. However, later snowstorms increased the snow to 93 percent of average. So, this year isn’t going to be the easy, walk in the park kind of thru hike. Rumors of people only making 15 miles in three days and postholing in snow up to their waists convinced us to take our time in getting to the high Sierra. In all fairness, it didn’t take much convincing to get us to stay two days in Tehachepi in a hotel with a pool and hot tub, eating sushi and barbeque, going to the movies, and laying in bed as much as possible.

We had some other adventures in town, including a hitch in a windowless black van with no seats in the back. It was a delivery van, but still. Honestly, it was fun, probably because I was with other people. Plus the delivery van was for a brewery and the driver invited us to come to the brewery that night. That was also kind of shady at first sight, in a warehouse in the industrial part of town. There was great beer and great music. The next day, it was difficult to tear ourselves away from the breakfast buffet, air conditioning, and real beds, but the trail was waiting…