CS573.3 to CS592.9 (573.3 to 592.9)
Daily miles: 19.8
A normal day:
Wake up when the sun says get up. Bright red sky this morning and the city of Mojave down below, Monday morning and people go to work. The windmills are still blinking red, so it’s not full light yet. Drink coffee stronger than usual, so I must have used less water. Eat a stale muffin.
Break camp, double check nothing’s left behind. Triple check. Adjust trekking poles and shoulder pack; begin walking. Admire the sun, the land, wonder how it came to be that I’m actually existing in this place. See people, say hi. Still meeting new people, after all these miles. Drink water, walk for hours, stop and rest at 9:30 and eat a bar. Take pictures, fiddle with my gear and the straps on my pack.
The desert is almost over. I’ve nearly walked the entire Southern California section.
Mighty heat today, and more hillsides full of burned trees. The omnipresent windmill. Powerful windmill always spinning and whirring. Round a corner and there’s a big valley spread out. A little patch of green in the middle. Homestead? Spring? The trail won’t take me down there and it’s too far off to tell. You wouldn’t believe how far you can see out here. When the sun gets low everything goes into flux mode, changing as the minutes go by. Another beautiful campsite tucked away among the trees that shelter me from the wind. Burnt out and bent over grass canvas the ground, and it’s soft and smells like a farm. Hay. The ground is hay. Which, I suppose, makes me a barn animal for the night. Fitting.
tcmauer 