Posts, notes, and longer-form writing.
Mileage: 32 to Lake Isabella (mile 652)
I woke up as usual, at 5:30 PM underneath a bush in the middle of the desert with a lizard playing in my hair, and knew it was time for a night hike! I had learned from my mistakes in the past few days, so I had slept at a water source (Willow Spring) a...
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Mileage: 36 to Willow Spring
Last night, I truly night hiked for the first time. I started at 6 PM and ended at 4 AM after replenishing my water. My body was pretty exhausted during the later portions of the hike, but otherwise, it was great! Instead of 100°+, it was only 75°, whic...
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Mileage: 26 to just beyond Golden Oaks Spring
It’s super hot in the desert. I feel like I’ve written that in every blog post since I started, but I feel the need to reiterate. So. Hot. I generally can handle it pretty well and just turn into a giant puddle of sweat, but it’s getting to the point wh...
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Mileage: 17 to Tehachapi (mile 558)
I meant to wake up early, I really did, but it was windy and cold and my body told me that it needed more recovery time from the 87 trail miles I’ve put in over the past 3 days. As a result, rather than early morning hiking to the top of a big hill, I g...
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Mileage: 33
I started this morning in a typical Mason fashion: snoozing my alarm until the last second. Don’t worry though, I managed to barely catch the moment the sun peeked over the horizon. Success! Everyone knew today was going to be hot, because we were losin...
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Mileage: 30 + 1 mile from Casa de Luna
I was originally planning to start night hiking today by leaving The Lunatic Lounge in the middle of the night, but Terry, the lovely woman who runs it, promised pancakes in the morning. I can’t say no to food, so I slept in until 6:30 and had a huge br...
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Mileage: 24 trail miles + 2 to Casa de Luna
The desert is hot. It always has been, but for some reason that hasn’t sunk in for me yet and I decided that breakfast in town until 9 AM was a good idea. It WAS a good idea and I got a delicious breakfast with some people, but that meant that I got to ...
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Mileage: 18. I didn’t intend to stop at Hiker Heaven for the night, but it’s a great place to be! In Agua Dulce (mile 454)
I had camped with about 13 other people last night at a ranger station, but I slept in a tiny bit and everyone was gone when I woke up at 7! The early bird gets the worm I guess. My only plan for the day was to get to Hiker Heaven to pick up my boxes, b...
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Mileage: 29
Having spent the last three days off-trail, it felt nice to get back to the outdoors. I ran into a ton of people today, most of whom I had never seen before, but I ran into a few old friends who had caught up too! The hiking wasn’t too eventful today an...
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Mileage: I guess technically 4.
BEEEEEEAAAACH. FOOOOOOOOOOD. FRRRIIIIEENNDDS. When I started hitching on Friday morning, I didn’t have high hopes. I was almost immediately proved wrong when the first car I saw picked me up and drive me to LA. Awesome! Thanks Michelle! Turns out she ha...
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