Day 29: Wind, Windmills, and Windfalls

The wind picked up late in the night and continued to grow stronger. I was thankful to be in a house-thing vs a tent. It was dark when I packed up my bag and to my surprise, another hiker, Hombre, was already packed and heading out the gate. 

It was back to aqueduct walking as the trail follows the LA aqueduct for 24 miles before heading into the Tehachapi mountains. The aqueduct was buried in piping underground making the views subpar, but I’d caught up to Hombre and we quickly hit it off talking about a wide range of items, including favorite books and authors (a fav topic of mine). 

We hiked most of the today together and battled through the ferocious wind. If I thought Day 14 was windy, well I was wrong. The wind stayed around 30-35 mph for the afternoon and into the evening. The wind made the hiking harder as it felt almost like we were wading through a creek. The wind would knock us sideways, backwards, and if we were lucky, forward. We hike through a wind farm, which included hundreds of windmills. 

The wind knocking Hombre sideways

A mile from camp, we encountered incredible trail magic at the ‘549 Mile Bar and Grill’, a small little station manned by a trail angel in Tehachapi. The station had chairs and lockers full of food, including donuts, orange juice, and delectable double chocolate chip cookies. It was a complete surprise (a windfall, if you will) and damn, was it good. 

We found camp slightly sheltered from the wind, but it required some magic to get my tent set up with the strong gusts. Even once set up, I was skeptical I’d make it through the night. 

I get my cooking equipment out only to discover my stove stopped working, so I cold-soaked ramen for an hour until it softened. The meal was ok, but calories are calories. 

Surprisingly, I fell asleep easily despite the wind and slept deeply through the night. 

Had to rig up a double trekking pole to keep my tent up in the wind

Miles: 32

Total Miles: 764