It's 80 miles back to the Andersons - mile 565

The stars have aligned! Want to hang out at the Andersons? Hell yes! Want to keep moving north to Canada? Yeah... I guess that'd be good too. Want to run into a bunch of hikers 4 days ahead of you and behind you? Yeah! That'd be cool. What do you call this time/space bending machine?! A CAR. F-yeah! Our friend Mr. F-in' Gentle Spirit was looking to move his ride up to Tehachapi and walk north out of the Andersons to get to it. Solution: drive the beer motivated hikers (that'd be us) to Tehachapi and drop 'em off so they can go on a southbound adventure BACK to the good times and then hop in the car and drive back to the top. Hell, it was so much fun we might do it again!

No no no... we have places to go and snow covered passes to play on. We have enjoyed another night of good times at La Casa de Luna but it's time to continue on north. Maybe I'll have to swing back on my way home in the fall... or come out next year to help out around the house. This place is definitely my speed and the folks who live here work hard to make sure the fun keeps rolling on. Those of you who know our buddy Murph, imagine if he moved near the trail and pulled every hiker he saw back to the ol' garage. That's where I'm at. Soooo gooooood!

Let me tell you a little bit about the last few miles. We started up at the wind farm between Tehachapi and Mojave, CA. Man! They put those windmills in the right place! After trudging through the stiff 40 MPH breeze to the top of the ridge we dropped down in the Mojave. Yeah! The desert! It's brutal out here. Brutally pleasant! No one told me it was going to be 75 with a cool breeze in the dry, desolate, valley floor. Rough living I tell you. We dropped down to the LA aquaduct which amounted to a long flat road walk either on dirt, or the sidewalk (ie cement aquaduct) if you prefer. At one point you get to walk on the big ol' pipe with all of LA's water rushing under you. Headed Southbound (SoBo) that 18 mile stretch landed us at HikerTown. Another trail angel! Like it said... rough living in the desert. As far as I know, the story is that a wealthy set designer from LA bought up this property and took some of his collection (old rolls royce, full on frontier town main street set, celebrity photos, antiques, cats, dogs, chickens, a boat, a few RVs...) and put it all together to build a hiker oasis with lots of character. Crashed there for the night and got a ride from the caretaker Bob to get some snacks before moving on. Ran into some nice folks (read christian camp/retreat center) at Sawmill campground who cooked us some good food and sent us off with a 1 lb bar of chocolate each! May the calories be with you! 12 miles downhill to the road and the Andersons' were on their way to pick us up and roll us straight to the best greasy spoon in town - chicken fried steak, great potatos, biscuits and gravy, eggs, the whole 9. Then it's back to the party zone and you can sort out the rest. Today we'll drive back to Tehachapi to find our friends and get back on the trail. Next party's in Kennedy Meadows. Apparently Sprinkles' grandma is bringing the ol' RV and never travels without a full bar. I suppose you meet people with similar interests wherever you go! But that's another town and 7 days away. Plenty of time to sober up.

Just a little more desert and then it's snow time! Can't wait to get out there. Thanks for all the comments. I love to hear the reactions. Let me know what you wanna hear about too. I have my own journal to keep track of my trip. This blog is for you guys. Anyway, catch ya'll next time!