PCT MM566, Tehachapi, A Zero And Possibly More

Friday: (04/08) A Zero is a day with no miles hiked. This is quite a zero since Lou and i started the day with a walk around the area and also walked over to the Airport camp where many PCT hikers stay to resupply here. The airport charges $5 a night and has a shower. It turn out is behind the fence where our RV park I only you need to walk through the hanger area to get there. No other PCT hikers are here. We had breakfast at the Village Grill where we enjoyed their special chili verde breakfast skillet. It was great. I had the leftover 1/4 poorboy sandwich for lunch and Lou and Dawn enjoyed other leftovers. Otherwise we did some shopping and relaxed at home. Lou and Dawn went to the movies tonight as I blogged. I managed to organize my recent photos and get the blog updated.

It has rained heavily most of the day again. The forecast isn’t looking good so I may be delaying more hike until it clears some? It’s currently under study.

Saturday: (04/09) Started with a walk to breakfast at the Shed’s buffet. Pretty good. I then studied google maps and looked for roads that cross the OCT to place water caches. The person who used to maintain several caches on this section doesn’t any longer. In either cse it can be dangerous to rely on a cache by others. It is early so any caches that exist should have water but I still won’t rely on them.

So… I took a drive to the locations I identified and cached some water away from the trail far enough and hidden enough so it will likely still exist when I get there. I drove Jawbone canyon Road out to the top of Piute Mountain where the trail crosses and placed a cache. Getting up to the crossing tested the Jeep’s off road abilities even though it was a road. Water has been flowing down the roads, more likely a river and there were lots of two foot deep trenches to pass over and by.  The roads weren’t muddy which was nice but rain was threatening all day. I also placed two other caches further North such that I never have to carry water for more than 30 miles.. It’s an 85 mile section in all. As I was coming down the last location it started to drop some hail. When I got back to pavement about 1710, I dashed toward home. It was about 90 miles and I needed to get there in time for a 1900 concert we were going to. I got back home about 1825. While I was gone they had a deluge just an hour previously.

We went to the Fiddler Crossing concert here in Tehachapi with the Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. An intimate 50 seat room and a great show. Dawn and Lou went there previously and Dawn told stories at the their open mike night Wednesday. Tonight it was bluegrass music. Small communities are great!

My How Time Is Flying

Saturday: (02/15) We made a quick run to Sprout’s Market for a few things. Normally this is our chopping day but today we abbreviated it. Lou and Dawn went out to a rummage sale after breakfast with our neighbor Meili. I tinkered with my new hiking toys. Grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Soup for dinner.

In the evening we all went to a Bluegrass concert in Mountain View and saw the Dry Branch Fire Squad. Another great Redwood Bluegrass Associates concert. Excellent music and humor. Having watched Ron Thomason singing, plucking and providing simple humor in the show you could see he was someone with clear thinking, possibly like Will Rogers. I went to their website and found a link to Ron’s Rants. I was blown away by his thinking. His thinking certainly puts my my thought process to shame. I’ve only read the first entry, so far, but will have to take the time, which will be considerable, to read the rest. he sounds like a hick in his show but clearly isn’t.

Sunday: (02/16) Lou and I started the day with a shopping run to Walmart and Trader Joe’s. Yesterday we didn’t do all our shopping stops. We went to breakfast with Ernie and Courtney at A Good Morning Restaurant. My bacon avocado omelet was excellent. After breakfast, Ernie and I went up to Redwood City looking for parts for his trailer. Not much luck finding what we needed. Probably need to go online. We also stopped by REI for me to look around before returning home. I spent the afternoon weighing stuff for my backpack. The base pack is now at over 16 pounds so I want to get rid of three more pounds but I still have some things to add. Dawn made some lentil chili for dinner. In the evening I returned to San Jose.


Monday: (02/17) A breakfast burrito from La Victoria to start. I erected my scaffolds into a tower and stripped the paint from the peak of the porch. Ramen noodles with freeze dried vegetables and chicken for lunch. The freeze dried stuff is some samples I got to try out for the hiking trip. Leale’s RV called and said my replacement windshield wiper arm was in so I arranged to have it installed tomorrow. For dinner I had a pork chop with baked beans and fried potatoes. I relaxed as traffic died down watching more Veronica Mars. About 1930 I drove back up to Palo Alto.


Tuesday: (02/18) I got up early and cleaned out and readied the RV to roll. I was on the way to San Jose about 0830. There was a lot to organize, a product of sitting still so long. I went to Leale’s RV epair in San jose and got the new windshield wiper arm installed. The new arm was a little different and it took a while to locate so I didn’t mind paying them to install it. The replacement arm was even cheaper than I had found it online and i just wasn’t sure what I had found was actually the right one. I was on my way back to Palo Alto by 1000 with the new arm, both blades replaced and the arms adjusted. Now, if only the vandals will stay away! I picked up breakfast at Jack In The Box on the way home. I left the Jeep there and caught a bus to San Jose. Courtney needs the jeep tomorrow. I got off the bus at the Grocery Outlet and picked up a couple of things before walking to the apartment.


I finished stripping the high peak of the porch. Really not much was done. I could have done some more work on the porch roof but convinced myself that I was through for the day, at 1500. Could have been my sore back, could have been that at that fairly late time of day I would have spent as much time on cleaning up as on working which just didn’t seem right. An afternoon off!

Wednesday: (02/19) I stripped the right column and ceiling area. Pancakes for breakfast. Wiener and cheese wraps for lunch. Rice roast beef and corn for dinner.

Thursday: (02/20) A breakfast burrito from La Victoria Restaurant. Busy stripping the left column and nearby ceiling area. PBJ tortilla for lunch. Chinese for dinner.

Shopping, A Book and Bluegrass

Saturday: (10/26) A busy day, for one of my recent weekends. Of course, we started with a shopping run to Walmart, Safeway and Sprouts for groceries. We always try to go early, 0700, to beat the crowds. For breakfast I prepared corned beef hash and eggs. In the afternoon, Lou’s friend Connie stopped by for a nice visit. They even took a walk (roll) around the block.


In the mail today I received our book, printed from our blog, for our Alaska trip. The book turned out really nice but did point out a need for adding captions to the photos since they don’t print in the same position as in the blog, just near that position so the text describing the photos doesn’t always match. A good proof reading could have prevented the error but i was in a hurry to preserve the trip.

For dinner I made a huge pot of spaghetti providing a lot of leftovers, which is always good warmed up.

After dinner Dawn and I went to a concert presented by the Redwood Bluegrass Association.


The headliners were the Canote Brothers with an opening group of Carol Elizabeth Jones & Laurel Bliss. The opening group played traditional bluegrass while The Canote brothers were hardly bluegrass. Their tunes were all novelty tunes, more of a comedy act, by a couple of twins that also happen to be outstanding musicians. Greg, the violinist is one of the best players I’ve heard. To know what they were like you’d have to hear them, which you can on YouTube.  A couple of the tunes they played at our concert were Wahoo and Missed It By Two. The RBA puts on these concerts every month and they are always great. It’s in intimate room with only 200-300 seats. And, one of my favorite things is the deserts they sell before the show and during the intermission.