I wake up in the tiny trailer. I can see Jeff and Jonathan’s tents being buffeted by the wind. It must have been stormy all night. I stretch and take my time getting ready. It looks cold outside. 

  
The guys slowly crawl out of their tents. Guess I should get going too. 

Tom, one of the guys helping at Mike’s made coffee and breakfast burritos! I eat one and pack one out for later. So good! Just as I’m leaving a handful of hikers arrive. 

I wave the burrito at them and point them towards the house. Thank you so much Mike, Tom, Josh and friends! 
I’m walking to the trail and hey! My heel bones don’t hurt anymore! I feel great! The air is crisp. It’s cool enough for me to hike with my hair down! Perfect hiking weather. 
The clouds tightly contour the hills. They spill down to fill the valley in a network of patches. It looks like a calico landscape with many shades of green. The clouds move so fast, I’m bathed in sunlight one second, then cast into shadow the next.   

It’s energizing. I feel like I’m flying down the trail. I pass Jeff and Jonathan de-layering and don’t see them for awhile. Bird calls echo through the misty hills. 

   
    
 
 The trail starts to lose elevation and I drop out of the sun and cloud scape into rocks and sand. 

    

   
The wind gusts at me from all different directions. I feel like I’m trying to walk strait in a mixing bowl. I’m going to get blown into a cactus pile, I just know it. 

There was one point where the wind was so strong, I had to walk looking down, hat shielding my face. I could see the little ants being blown away with the sand. Their little bodies tumbling away with nothing to grab onto. 

I make it to the next water source and find a water cache. It’s like a treasure hunt.

   
   

Do you see it? There! Under that bush!
  
I’m extra careful to not let the wind blow the bottles over as I refill them. 

I see Jeff and Jonathan in the distance looking for the water. I stand up and wave them over. It’s so windy the sand blasts us as we filter. Mmm sandy water. We talk about maybe camping at a boulder field at mile 144 tonight. I finish filtering first and head out. 
The trail wanders over large empty sand washes, then starts to climb up a steep ridge.

 
The wind blows down at me as I try to climb up the hill. Why wind why! Can’t you help me out and blow the other way? And just as I thought those words, the wind switches directions and pushes me up to the top. 

Haha! Wish granted! Thank yo-whoooosh!!!! 

It tries to blow me back down the hill! 

I grab onto a bolder and look down to the bottom of the ridge. The wind tears through the trees. The sound is tremendous. Yikes. This is sketchy. I look up ahead. The trail narrows and has a steep drop to the right. One wrong gust and bad news. I prepare myself to walk across. My stance like a suma wrestler, hiking poles splayed like Bambi on ice legs. Let’s do this.

 I waddle across the narrow section.

 The wind tries to pull me every which way. Not fun. I make it across okay and laugh at myself ‘that must have looked silly’.

The trail then levels out into a section with normal wind levels (thank goodness). I have to take a picture of every single cactus flower. 

 
  
 
  
 
The air smells very strongly of skunk. I walk on and find this sign:

 
Oh.

 I’m suddenly very aware of some trailers by a dirt road looking down over the trail… I wish I wasn’t wearing such a bright blue shirt. Green or tan would have been nice. I push on for a few miles trying to be inconspicuous. 

I find another water cache.  Thank you so much to the people who keep these caches stocked!

I eventually find the bolder campsite and attempt to set up my tent. The wind is back with a vengeance. The ground is too sandy for the tent stakes so I rig the lines to rocks and sticks. Hope it holds through the night!

 
 Jeff and Jonathan aren’t too far behind. They set up camp on the other side of a large bolder. We make dinner huddled from the wind behind the large rock. 

We spend the rest of the evening talking. Jeff waits for the sun to set so he can get the perfect picture. Jonathan explores the rock formations and I paint the surrounding manzanita trees.

 
Camped at mile 144 of the pct

Miles walked today: 17