Sunday, 24 June 2012

We Passed Some Serious Windies

What makes the title funny is that 'windies' are what my mom calls farts. Haha. But these windies were farts from hell! After our incredible 4 day vacation at Casa de Carmen et Abby, we met up with Shutterburst and his aunt gave us all a lift back to Willow Springs road, where we left the trail some 4 days earlier. It was Friday evening so we knew we weren't going far, but maybe a few miles to get away from the road.

A few minutes back on trail and it was evident that we were in for some serious winds. The place doesn't house some 5000 windmills for nothin'! It was intense, at some times frustrating and all round difficult hiking. We only went about 2.5 miles until we found refuge from the wind behind a big bush and called it home. It was 7:30, we were tired and wanted to get a good start the following morning. Julia and I cowboy camped among piles of cow dung and Shutterburst set up his little tent and we watched as all the lights lit up on the windmills admit got darker and darker.

Saturday morning we woke up at just after 5AM. The wind didn't let up at all and we had dirt and dust blown all over us. We knew it was inevitable, we had to fight this wind to get out of it, so we packed up quick and were on trail shortly after 6AM, fighting the wind with everything we had. A few days earlier, people had to turn back because the winds just made the trail way too dangerous. It was a long grind to make any progress and it would only let up long enough for you to stumble forward and then it would hit you with a strong gust to knock you back again. We took refuge behind a couple shrubs here and there, but eventually made our way down to hwy 58 and a water cache, where we had a small break with Shutterburst. We had made the goal of reaching a water source 23 miles from where we woke up. He left and we really didn't see him again until the evening. The trail followed the highway for a short while and then cut away towards the mountains. Just as you turn in, there's a gate and a register.we were curious to see who may have passed us while we were in Bakersfield so we scanned the names who had signed recently. MUCH to our delight, we saw our great friend June!! She had signed it that morning as well, so we assumed we'd catch her by the evening! We were so excited now. As we climbed, the winds got stronger and stronger. Like stop you in your tracks and knock you over strong. It was a slow go and a couple times I would drop my pack and run back down the trail to make sure little Julia was ok. She's a beast though and handled it beautifully. It was just very tiring and made the day seem to go on forever. There was this one spot that was a gap between two canyons, maybe about a 20 foot stretch that was just crazy intense. I managed to get through okay, but Julia had to go off trail a bit for some shelter from the wind. Many others did the same apparently and some others even crawled. We found a nice little spot with refuge from the wind and had lunch and a nap there. Nothing like a nap, food, a shot of caffeine and some music to get the energy levels up!! We headed back out into the wind and fought our way to the top. We even had fun with the wind.
The rest of the afternoon and early evening was pretty uneventful and the wind eventually died down a bit and it became a little more pleasant. We finally made it to the water source, to find 3 hikers already sleeping and Shutterburst quietly cheering our arrival! He told us that the they were Flatlander (a guy he hiked with early on) and two Japanese hikers, a guy and a girl. Juney! It appeared as though she was sleeping, so I took out 'Manicky Necko' that's the rough, phonetic translation of 'lucky cat' in Japanese, that June taught us way back at Warner Springs, over a month ago! I put it on one of her platypuses that was lying beside her, so she would see it in the morning and realize we were there too! Well she sort of turned over and looked our way, so we waved and she waved back but she didn't quite recognize us so she turned back the other direction and the noticed what I had left there and she immediately shot up in her sleeping bag with a big grin on her face. We went over and gave her a big hug and the three of us chatted for about fifteen minutes or so. What a great reunion!!

That night we cowboy camped too. There were six of us right by this little spring and the another few nearby. What a great day! Insane adventure to get there and to be reunited with June after more than a month of wondering how she was doing. Awesome!

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