![]() ![]() There was a time not too long ago when I was afraid to go home. This is why I came out here to walk, in order to heal and move forward. Ah, listen to me! I’m actually starting to look forward to the future. I do set high goals, mostly so I can finish and begin my new life. I wonder what it will feel like to take a short walk after this is done, or even a short backpack trip. Her pace is fast, but she’s just tagging the road, so I meet her coming back too. She takes my picture and tells me she likes my spirit walking this entire path. A young woman catches me with a tiny backpack. The trail works its way through this high plateau and I try to establish just the right tempo for the long haul I’ll walk today – and likely much of the rest of the PCT. A jack rabbit with enormous ears bounds in front of me, his head appearing and disappearing with each hop.Īs I reach the top, I enter a sea of fans, some spinning and others, as Rae told me, turned off because only so much energy can be collected. I’m glad I wear long pants with a fabric that doesn’t pick up these prickers. My cutoff heads steeply up on switchbacks through scrubby oak and grasses that have sharp, clingy pieces. I first walk a mile on a road next to the highway, a few truckers honking and waving causing me to spin my sticks in the air. When she drives off, I shiver in the cold but smile too, happy I have such ideal hiking weather as I enter the Mojave desert. Rae gives me a hug telling me the driest section is over, but I’m not so sure as I’ll depend on two caches and a muddy trickle to manage today. I find the windmills beautiful on the hills, glinting in the bright sun. Now, there are massive turbines with three blades spinning slowly but creating far more juice. As we drive through the canyon, she points out the small turbines as the older ones, when only so much power was thought harnessable. She moved to Tehachapi forty years ago to take part in the birth of wind farms and in charge of collecting wind data. She was a flower child in the ‘60s living in a commune in Sonoma. Rae is the trail angel I contacted last night asking if she might take me back to Cameron Road to pick up the trail. We sit down to eat and chat just as the giant clock announces 7 am by playing ‘Edelweiss’ and sending two life-sized dolls in lederhosen out to spin around. Rae has a miniature scone with coffee, and how often does this happen – I have exact change. I can’t choose between a bear claw and an apricot strudel, so have both – and coffee with cream. I wake early, organize Olive Oyl and cross the street to Kohnens bakery to have breakfast and meet Rae. – Mother TeresaĪs nice as it is to sleep in a bed, I miss the alicoop and night noises. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much. I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. ![]()
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