*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 34: May 11, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Tentsite – 427.0
End: Los Angeles Camping and RV Resort – 444.3
Miles: 17.3
Ascent: 2049 | Descent: 5246
Sleep: Tent

Today was a long day with a rewarding ending. We woke up early to with the motivation of getting to town early and ordering pizza. We had a big hill the climb first thing, but we got up to the top quickly and had really pretty views along the way.

Once we were over the ridge we started the first long descent for the day. We had clear views the entire time looking down at the ridge further down. We made it to the water source and stopped to filter water for the remaining 12 miles into town. There were tons of bees at the spring, that’s been a common theme lately. We ran into Gump, Machine, and Black Bird while we were getting water and chatted with them for a bit before we hiked in.

I hiked out with Pinky and Hangman but got in front of them when Gump flew by. I spent the rest of the morning hiking alone and listening to music. The views just kept getting better and better and I enjoyed signing along with my music.

Around 10am I caught up with Truffles at North Fork Ranger Station. We met Todd the caretaker and he gave us Cokes and Gatorade. We hung out until U-Turn, Hangman, and Pinky joined. We sat around backing and talking to Black Bird and Maui for a while. Eventually we packed up and tackled the final stretch into Acton.

We left the ranger station during the heat of the day and could instantly feel it. The ridge we hiked down was totally exposed with no shade whatsoever. I put my umbrella up for a bit but it was windy and it inverted pretty quickly. I tried to hike hard to get it over with, but it was hard to be fast in the heat and with some mild uphill.

It felt like it too a long time, but I finally made it to the trailhead parking lot. I was about to sit down to wait for Truffles when another hiker came up from the opposite direction. Her trail name was Convict and she did the PCT in 2019. Hr lives in LA and was out for a day hike. She gave the two of us a ride to the RV park and sent us on our way.

When we arrived we went to check out the campground store. They had a wide selection of resupply stuff and tons of drinks and ice cream. We got some stuff to tide us over while we waited for the others. We got on the WiFi and started charging our stuff in the meantime.

When the rest of the group arrived we went to set up our tents in the shade. I took a shower and washed all my clothes in there with me. I hated to pay $25 a person to sleep in our own tents, but I feel like I got my money’s worth in the amount of water I used.

Freshly showered and sporting my town dress, we ordered pizza from The Pizza Place. It was Mother’s Day so we all called our moms while waiting for food. When the food arrived we were delighted and horrified to see how much we had ordered. We got an XXL pizza, mozzarella sticks, and chicken winged. It was delicious and greasy and just what we wanted.

We closed out the evening by sorting through our resupply boxes. Lisa, my mother in law, prepared Truffles, Hangman, Pinky and I all resupplies to get us into Tehachapi. She even made a box of extra snacks and goodies for “the tramily”. Lisa is a fantastic point person for all things resupply/mailing. She packed exactly the kind of food we wanted/needed and even went so far as to individually package things like ramen and Mac and cheese. She wrote us sweet little cards and had inspirational messages written on all the ziplock bags. It was the ideal resupply! There was a ton of food that we spread out over several picnic tables, our food bags are going to be so heavy…

Day 35: May 12, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Los Angeles Camping and RV Resort – 444.3
End: Trail Register – 458.6
Miles: 14.3
Ascent: 2304 | Descent: 1677
Sleep: Tent

Today felt like a very productive and good day on trail! Our goal was to hike just a little ways past Aqua Dulce so we knew we didn’t have far to go. We slept in and spent some time on the store’s porch using their WiFi.

Hangman and Pinky left before Truffles and I. We stayed behind so I could send some emails and we talked to Sandstone and Fast Cash for a bit. When we finally did get moving it was just before 9am.

The trail today was absolutely beautiful! Easily one of my favorite stretches so far. We started by going uphill, but we were hiking through tall dead grass instead of all the small shrubbery we have been seeing. There were lots of cool rock formations as well along the way and blooming flowers. Halfway through the climb there was even a shallow cave that we went to explore!

The trail flattened out and we started going downhill. We could see Highway 14 and it felt strange to be walking at such a slow pace compared to the cars and trucks on the highway speeding by. We caught up with Pinky and Hangman just in time to walk through the tunnel under the highway together. It was cool and dark and honestly felt really good compare to the blazing sun we had been hiking through all day.

Soon afterwards we entered Vasquez Rocks County Park. Apparently a lot of SiFi and western movies have been shot here. The rocks were awesome! It reminded me of Capitol Reef in Utah. We took our time hiking through, pausing the take lots of pictures along the way.

As we were almost to the exit of the park we passed through a large parking lot. A big suburban and minivan drove in, all with tons of cameras inside/outside the car. We knew immediately that they must be filming something, so we stuck around to see what. 3 men dressed like cowboys got out of the car along with a full camera crew.

Curious, Pinky and I went over to ask what they were filming. The camera guy said briefly “a Belgium documentary”, which obviously was a lie. We started to go but were stopped on the road by multiple trailers coming in hauling horses and more film equipment. We still have no idea what it was, but it was cool to see them beginning to set up!

We had a brief road walk through the town of Aqua Dulce and walked right past a Mexican restaurant. We felt like my would be blasphemy to walk past a restaurant (even though our food bags were bulging), so of course we stopped in for lunch. The staff there were super hiker friendly and let us put our packs in the back, plus they had several power strips for us to charge our electrics.

We were all so excited to eat! I had burritos and several margaritas. We all had a great time relaxing over good food with good company. There was WiFi so we spent a decent amount of time on our phones. I was able to send some emails and schedule several posts.

The staff at the restaurant were adamant that we could sleep on their patio. By some miracle we hiked out a couple of miles. 100 Grand and Nate joined us. We made a brief stop by Serenity Oasis to fill up on water before leaving town. We had a couple more miles on the road before we got back on actual trail.

The last miles of the day went by quickly since I was running in margaritas. We stopped in a valley with multiple tent sites hidden in the bushes. We sat around camp and ate/snack. I was still pretty full from lunch but still managed to munch on some stuff to lighten my food bag. Glad we got a few miles in at the end of the day!

Day 36: May 13, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Trail Register – 458.6
End: Green Valley Fire Station – 478.3
Miles: 19.7
Ascent: 3687 | Descent: 3182
Sleep: Tent

Today was a fine day on trail. I slept great and was happy to sleep in a little extra since we decided to leave around 7ish. My legs were super tired for some reason, though, and I had a hard time getting in the grove this morning. We had a big climb first thing this morning and I felt slow. Truffles and I were the last ones to leave camp and I usually am able to catch up to the rest of the group fairly quickly, but that wasn’t happening today.

The climb was scenic, with lots of green shrubbery and rolling hills. When we greeted the ridge we caught up to the rest of the group. The top of hill was beautiful and open, it reminded me of the Roan Highlands. We had a short hike downhill to our single water source for the day. There were lots of people congregating at the spring and we took our time filtering water. Once I was loaded down with 4 liters Truffles and I got moving again.

It was all downhill and easy to a road, where we then immediately started going uphill again. For some reason this climb really got to me and I was hufffing and puffing the whole time. My legs felt like lead and I had to force myself to our one foot in front of the other. The climb was only a couple of miles long but it seemed to drag on forever. Several times I wanted to stop for a break, but I knew if I did I would have an even harder time getting going again.

Thankfully I made it to the top and everyone else was sitting down to eat lunch. I was so eager to take off my shoes and rest for a bit. We had a good time joking with each other before packing up to tackle the final 8 miles for the day.

The rest of the afternoon was supposed to be easy but it felt really hard. The blister on my right heel has come back with a vengeance despite me draining it completely in Acton. I also started experiencing what I assume is tendinitis in my right achilles. I couldn’t figure out if it was the blister bothering me or tightness in my calf/achilles. Either way it made for a long afternoon where my attention was constantly fixated on my right foot.

We made it to camp just before 5pm. Already there were multiple tents set up, and more people kept pouring in after us. The fire station is beside a busy road but has water and plenty of space to camp. I stretch out my legs for a while before making dinner. I ate with Pinky, Hangman, and U-Turn. Some other folks were around and we talked to Spock, Cowboy, and Skippy for a while. I’m hoping my foot feels better after some rest and that my buster will rupture again on its own.