Mile 652.1

+ High: Reunited with Tanya and Kate, and we hit 600 miles!
- Low: my right foot stayed numb and sometimes hurting

Day 51

After 4 days of resting in Tehachapi, I felt really good. And now I have my hiking partners back. I'm pretty happy about it.

Tanya and Kate wanted to hike the Tehachapi section from the Willow-Spring Road to I-58, but I don't.They headed out in the morning with Sonsie, and I stayed with Lisa in the Starbucks for a peaceful morning.

I joined them at lunch time and we started hiking out from Mile 566.5, Highway 58 overpass. A cloudy day... unlike every other day in the desert. It's definitely a help when we have to do 2000 ft climb in 5 miles.  Kate and Tanya has this new hiking routine that they only walk about 15 miles a day. So I followed. We camped at Mile 572.9 with Missfit and Codex. Missfit is a hiking tour guide and Codex is a developer for gaming company from Seattle.

Day 52

We are passing through the last section of wind farm on this day. It got a little boring with all the similar scenes. After 4 days of break in town, it was harder for me to get back into the hiking mode. I felt tired. but we managed to walk 17 miles to Mile 590 and camped with Codex. Somehow Codex has the same pace with us. We had dinner together and went to bed around 9 pm, which was unusually late for me.

Day 53

This was a big day because we are hitting 600 miles! After the first 100 miles, I lost the excitement for celebrating hundreds. But it is still something! We planned to get to the Landers Meadow Spring for the night. It's am established campsite with running water and outhouse. It sounded very appealing and it didn't disappointed us. the campsite was lovely. The water from the spring was clean and fresh. We dry-washed ourselves and also cleaned our clothes. The night ended with my perfect dehydrated pasta as dinner.

Day 54

This day was a very beautiful day in high desert. We were in between Bright Star Wilderness and Kiavah Wilderness. Everything is above 5000 ft. This is one of my favorite scenes of Southern California. Just at the moment you think you are tired of desert already, you get to see this endless hills continuing to the end of the sky. This was also a day that we have to depend on trail magics for water. It was a long stretch without reliable water sources. We met a SoBo (South bond)hiker on the way and he told us that all the water caches has been restocked and we will definitely be OK. That was a relief for us. We camped at a tent site around Joshua trees. Not long after, we saw Codex coming along as well and we camped together.

Day 55

This morning we hit the water cache and it really had plenty of water. IT was another day with amazing view. I think I really need to have English vocabulary to describe what I saw and how I felt when I stand on the trail and looked down to all the continuous landscapes. Today's goal was the same. Try to hit the water point to camp, but we failed to do so. We camped a mile before a cabin by Mclver's Spring. We met Codex later and he said it was a wild night at the cabin that night.

Day 56

It's not too much to get to Walker Pass where we scheduled to meet with Lisa and go in to lake Isabella. We arrived at walker Pass campground around 10:30 in the morning. There were trail magic again. The picnic table was full of food, drinks, beer, and first aid kit. We met a lot of hikers who were also heading to Lake Isabella and who were here just for a rest.

This section was tough for me in a way that I haven't been hiking with people for a while. Walking together in a similar pace was not easy. So I drank two beers from the cooler while waiting for Lisa. It felt great!