Agua Dulce to Tehachapi

In Agua Dulce we got new pairs of shoes. My old shoes were dying for the last couple of days, it actually became impossible to continue hiking with them.

Old vs. New

And Roi's old shoes were too tight, so tight that one of his foot nails got black, and his probably going to lost it very soon...

With our new shoes and after a good night sleep in the RV at the Hiker Heaven place, we went to town to have a late breakfast (with Ben, a fellow hiker) and buy food for the next section.

We only hiked 14 miles that day, after leaving the town at almost 2:00 p.m.

The next day was a short one as well - only 10 miles until the highway, from where the trail is close for ~40 miles for this year, due to a big fire took place a year ago.

We hitched to a town called Green Valley, to a trail angel house called Casa de Luna (aka the Andersons).  

We got there quite early and dinner time was few hours ahead... We went to the local store twice just to burn time, bought ice cream, beers, snacks and pretty much everything we found there.

Dinner was taco salad, we ate a lot and went sleeping early to avoid a group of hikers we didn't really like...

Having a shower at the Andersons

We had pancake for morning and went back to the highway, where we hitched all the way to a placed called Hiker Town, ~20 miles that bypass the closed section of the PCT. We walked on the road ~1 mile, 

filled 4 liters of water each in Hiker Town and start our hike for that day.

After 3 days of very short hikes, I felt as if my body was craving for a long hike. 

The California`s aqueduct

Our initial plan was to walk to the first water cache, fill up and then continue for few more miles and camp.

Our backpacks were so heavy with all the water and extra food we carried, since we miscalculate the amount of food we will need for this section.

We had many stops on the way for drinking and eating, just to lighten our backpacks.

On the way we discussed we can hike during the night and complete the entire section (42 miles) in one shot, since this section was lack of water and the heat was so bad.
Challenge accepted :)

Lots of jeep road on this section

Joshua tree

Weird bunny... probably very thirsty, just as we

Happy with our new challenge we got to the first water cache (17 miles in) and were shocked to find out it was completely dry (we met the guy that maintains it in the morning, and he told us he just filled it earlier that day). :(

It was hot, we only had 1.5 liters each and still 24 miles ahead of us with no water. Ahaaaa!!!

We thought about those 3 cars we saw on the dirt road along the way, each of the those drivers asked us if we need water and we said 'No, thanks.' to each of them :(

We sat there 10 minutes, trying to figure out what to do.

Now the challenge became a must.

There's no way we can hike 24 miles with only 1.5 liters in this heat (the section also includes a 1000 meters climb).

Only thinking about it made us both truly thirsty. We hold ourselves from drinking for the next 7 miles. It was hard. We both started to imagine bottles of water on the sideways of the trail. Amazing how quickly your mind and body are affected psychologically...

We knew there should be a small stream 7 miles ahead, which we planned not to rely on, since many hikers got Dysentery from drinking the water there.

We were thinking that if we boil the water and use it for dinner it should be safe enough.

We got there by 9:00 p.m. The water seemed to be OK, so we used it for dinner and filled 2 liter, that we would use only in emergency.

After this late dinner and a long break we continue towards the long climb.

We kept going up and up for hours. The moon was full, so we didn't have to use our headlamps. It was very beautiful, and I think it could be a real joy if we weren't so worried about the water...

At 2:00 a.m we got to another water cache which we didn't expect to find any water in, after the previous disappointment...  

We stood there a whole minute, shocked again. Shocked to see dozens of mineral water bottles in front of us!!!

And few chairs to sit as well!!!

It felt like a dream, illusion... 

But it was real indeed! Each grabbed a bottle and start drinking like crazy.

So exhausted... 

We cooked another dinner and sat there for about an hour. Feeling safe, happy, relaxed! 

We had only 10 more miles left to go. The lack of sleep was starting to affect us.

But a challenge that was accepted is a challenge that must be completed!

It took us almost 5 hours to walk those miles. At one point when we stopped for a short rest we just fell asleep for 30 minutes on the trail. We were tired!!!

But we made it! 42 miles (~67 KMs) completed! Our feet and legs were badly sore.

We hitched to a town called Tehachapi and checked in to a nice hotel. It was still early in the morning, so breakfast was still served. We ate like crazy! And finally met Matt and Chad!

It was great. But we were so tired!

We took a shower and grabbed a good nap.

We're still here at the moment. We decided to take another day to rest and have an early birthday celebration for myself :)

We resupplied for the next section. here is how 4 days of food for the two of us looks like: