crossing the mojave

The plan was simple. wake up early, 4 AM an hike as much as possible until sun rise. Enjoy sunrise with breakfast. I sat in the los angeles aqueduct and enjoy the view.

I thought that the trail were from rim to rim but in the middle it turn right. By 11 I was cooking myself and suffering. Will was putting the pace and I was suffering to follow him. the trail goes over the aqueduct that is cover. there are not much sade, in some areas some of those yhosua trees and maybe under some bushes. I saw a mojave rabbit, it is like a cat with very long ears , also a camaleon.

it surprise to see people living in RV in the desert. Finally we saw the bridge where we could hide from the sun during the pick hour. There were already 10 hikers sleeping. every half hour someone need to move as the bridge sade moves.

After a good nap show up stranger. You crazy. you just hike the Mojave in the middle of the day....looks not much affected for the sun....

You scape from the desert between the canyons and mountains. finally you get into a deep canyon where we can see a creek and a place to camp. Mojave has been a experience but was done. no doubt this is a highlight of the pct.I rode an article that maybe  the pct would be redesign to avoid go over the aqueduct and redirect it over the mountains.  Apparently authorities are not very happy having all those hikers over los angeles water. It will lose one of those classic stages, the cross of the mojave. Even if is just a corner is nice to be on the floor of the desert.

 

 

the next day was a climbing out of the desert surrounded of wind mills. This are is a huge wind farm. I knew I will have trouble finding a good place to sleep. It was getting dark. I found a kind of deep canyon with a dry river bed offering some wind protection. I also prepare a wind breaker with rocks and logs. Even with this the night wasn't very peaceful.