Day 34 - Ready, Set, Go

Day 34 - Tuesday, May 29
Hikertown (518.4) to Tylerhorse Canyon (541.4)
Miles today - 23

We were all on the trail around 3 am to start our trek across the Mojave. We followed the LA aqueduct for a long time, and actually walked right on top of it at times. After the sun came up it got pretty hot real quickly. The only vegetation were Joshua trees and small shrubs.



Then we passed through a wind farm with hundreds of giant turbines. They're so much bigger than they look when driving by them on a highway.



The desert seemed to go on forever. Everything is so much further away than it looks and it feels like you're not getting anywhere because the views are exactly the same for hours. It was like walking on a treadmill.

The real excitement of the day happened after we got to camp (23 miles by 1 pm). There's a really steep hill several hundred feet high right next to our camp. It's probably greater than a 45 degree angle all the way to the top. There's no trail, just loose dirt and rocks.



(Above: the hill is much higher than it looks in the picture.)

Somebody joked about buying a 12 pack of beer for whoever could climb up there in less than 15 minutes. That turned into Bronco and Iceman (who we caught up to today) each offering up $50. It was hard to pass up that kind of money, so Fairway, Robin Hood, and I took on the challenge, with the winner getting $100. Fairway went out of the gate too fast and dropped out in the first 20 seconds. Robin Hood and I continued on, taking different routes, and we hit the top at virtually the same time. We got up there in just 8 and a half minutes and we agreed to split the money. Everyone down below was thoroughly entertained. Getting back down was the hard part. It would have been pretty embarrassing to have my hike ended by a fall while doing a challenge like this, so it's probably not one of the smartest things I've ever done. But now I have $50 to spend in town!

It's 7:30 and we're all in bed already. I'm cowboy camping because it's really windy and I don't want to deal with my tent flapping or blowing over again. I hope the bugs, snakes, scorpions, and other creepy crawlies stay away.