5 million steps with Yoda: Day 43- Mad Dash To Walker Pass

June 14, 2016

Tentsite(641.9) to Walker Pass(652.1)10.2 Miles

Most of today was a blur. I didn't sleep very well last night because of the wind. I decided to cowboy camp because I didn't want to be kept awake by my tent flapping in the wind. Instead I was kept awake by the noise of everyone else's tent flapping in the wind. It was really cold when I finally woke up and it was hard to pull myself out of my sleeping bag. Eventually I got moving because it was a town day. We only had to hike ten miles to get to Walker Pass. From there it was a 35 mile hitch to get to Lake Isabella. The scenery on the way down to the road was particularly lovely, but I was struggling to make good time. I was kind of keeping my head down and just grinding out the miles. When I finally looked up I was rewarded with a fantastic view of the Sierra. It actually took my breath away.

It's getting so close!

For the rest of the hike I stayed engaged with my surroundings. I slowed my pace so I could safely look around. At one point the trail had a very steep dropoff. One wrong step and it would have been quite the tumble down the mountain.

Long way down

I finally reached the road at Walker Pass. There was a nice sign with information on how it became named Walker Pass. I enjoy the history behind the trail. It is always great to learn something new.

Great information

Outro, Wolf, and I made it to the road around the same time and started to try to get a ride into town. We had our thumbs out for a long time before we finally got a ride. A nice retired couple with a large suv pulled over for us. As we were getting into their car, Evac and U-Turn showed up. They were just in time to jump in with us. Unfortunately, as we pulled away Zuul and Raging Pineapple

showed up. They were not as lucky. It was a long 35 miles into town. The elderly gentleman tried to entertain us with the history of the area, but he was very soft spoken. We all just nodded our heads and smiled. They dropped us off at a shopping plaza with a major grocery store, a pizza restaurant, and donut/ice cream store. It was a nice afternoon spent eating and resupplying.

A sandwich to satisfy a hungry hiker( I couldn't actually talk Outro into buying this)

Thanks Theresa(Outro's mom) for my Starbucks

U-Turn called around to find a place to stay, but he couldn't find anything reasonable. Just as we were giving up he decided to look into the neighboring town of Kernville. He managed to secure us an amazing place for the night. For $26/person we got a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen. We had to take a forty-five minute bus ride to get there, but it was well worth it. We went to the market to buy groceries to cook dinner. Zuul, Evac, and I cooked penne with alfredo, broccoli and red peppers. It was pretty delicious. After dinner we all sat outside swapping stories. Before the night was over we knew each other very well. Outro has a way of asking very deep questions that cut to the core. We stayed up until almost two am. It was very obvious that tomorrow will be a zero day!

Cool giant chessboard at the lodge