PCT 27 – Beyond the Golden Oaks Spring

Daily miles 21
Total miles 587

Took a zero yesterday in Mojave.   It was a good zero,  one where we could take care of our errands quickly and efficiently and then have the remainder of the day to relax.   Went to the PO to mail back some socks,  Beardoh picked up some sock liners at an Army Surplus Store,  picked up some augmentations for our food at the grocery store and headed to Denny’s.   All errands done by noon.

There is an inexpensive bus service which runs throughout this area (Kern Valley Transport) and we were able to catch the bus from Mojave at 6am today.   By 6:20,  we were back on the trail.

We had a little bit of dread going into this section because of the forecasted heat and the heat that we were actually feeling down in Mojave (which was quite brutal).  Fortunately,  we had a nice wind for the 2500 foot climb from the highway and the heat didn’t kick in until early afternoon.   By that time,  we were walking downhill.

We had a 17 mile waterless stretch today,  so we left with quite a bit of water and 4 days of food.   The longer waterless stretches always make Beardoh think of ways to lighten our pack load –  today’s topic was silk jammies for SweetPea instead of the traditional outdoor base layer.   Hmm mm.

In the early afternoon,  we made it to the Golden Oaks Spring.   It is a solid and reliable source of water for PCT hikers.   We found about 15 hikers laid out in the shade near the water.   Happily,  we caught up to Gazelle and XC at this water spot,  so we got to spend our break time as well as the rest of the day hiking and camping with them.

Some bad news that we learned from Gazelle and XC today is that the section of Trail between Walker pass and Kennedy Meadows is being closed on account of a fire which recently broke out.   We are pretty bummed to hear this and are unsure how we will handle it.   There is not a lot known about the fire at this time so hopefully we will get more information when we head into town at Walker pass to resupply.

Tonight we are camped just down hill from the wind turbines.   They will lull us to sleep like a distant train… Hopefully.   We were able to easily find good trees to hang from and Gazelle and XC are cowboy camped here too.   We are aiming for an early start to try and get some miles in before the heat.   Probably be walking before 5am.