Day 44: Mountain Peak ⛺ - Lake Isabella

Day: 21.05.2018 Miles hiked today: 18 miles Total Mileage: Mile 562

After this very windy but yet warm night we have to hike about 18 miles until Walker Pass from where we hopefully get a ride to Lake Isabella. I'm looking forward to Lake Isabella, the town's name sounds so pretty already and I do hope that the name will not disappoint me. There is a bus 3 times a day from Walker Pass to Lake Isabella and we aim to catch the bus at 2.50pm. It's not a hard day, no steep uphills anymore and hence it shall be possible. We started hiking at our usual starting time which is 6 am and made good progress. The weather is also perfect, a little cloudy and not hot at all. So far we have always been very lucky with the weather. I heard from others starting in May that it is nearly impossible to hike during the day cause of the very hot temperatures and that's why they have to night hike often. Night hiking is cool but yet you miss all the views and landscapes so I am really happy if I don't have to do it too often.

With our lighter backpacks (not that much food left plus not that much water) the miles fly by again. As we descend to the desert all the flowers are blooming. It's so beautiful to hike through these flower fields in the desert- I've never expected this! And Kermit spottet a baby horned tod which of course I had to pick up and crawl his tiny belly. He was too cute! Shortly after lunch we already arrived at Walkers Pass. 2 hours too early for the bus . But the trail provides and as soon as we sat down at the Walker pass camping picnic table a car stopped and offered a lift to Lake Isabella which is about 25 miles away. How cool is that?! He dropped us off in front of a burger and best milkshakes in town place. The milkshakes were awesome but I didn't eat a burger this time as I head some food on trail. The town however is not what I pictured it to be. It's all very spread out and it makes it hard to move without a car. After that milkshake (I ordered a big one!) I was stuffed. If I am stuffed and tired I get food drunk. I feel and behave as I am drunk without touching any alcohol! I can't hardly walk because my belly is so full and because I am tired I act strangely. So I was dancing through vons (supermarket), wanted to buy a bike off a guy and so on :) at vons we stopped for a BBQ tonight because the camp park we are staying tonight apparently offers BBQ possibilities. While we just entered vons Hauser texted asking where we are. We haven't seen the guys at all since we left Tehachapi and were wondering already if something happened. Hauser is alone and he also doesnt know where easy company and Jason are. He is joining the BBQ tonight and so we bought aspargues, meat, mushrooms with cream cheese, salad, avocados, chips, eggplants, onions, beer jim bean... its going to be delicious! But before we start cooking I urgently need a shower and to wash my cloths. As all of our hiking clothes gets so dirty it will not get clean if you just wash it in a washing machine. If you hand wash your clothes beforehand the result is much more satisfying. But it also takes much more time. I carry about half a kilo of sand in all my clothes, that's incredible!

Just when I finished with showering and washing also easy company showed up. However, still no sign of Jason. We started with cooking making all other hikers here jealous and hungry. They all wander around our table like hungry dogs waiting for some bits falling off the table, haha! Food was indeed very delicious and we had a great evening staying up long after hikers midnight (which is 9pm).