Date: May 26 & 27, 2017
Miles: 630.8 – 643.7 & 643.7 – 651.3
The wind was calmer the next morning when we packed up to leave Bird Springs Pass. The water cache there had plenty for us all, and while we were filling up, we met a hiker named Santa’s Little Helper who was staying at the Pass for a couple days to help maintain the cache. After a chat, we headed on through the Mojave.
We ran into Caleb (aka One Strap) along the way and he joined us as we made our way to McIver’s Spring and cabin, where we set up camp for the night.
We were soon joined by Byline, who found some cans of vegetables in the slightly horror story-ish cabin and decided to add a can of corn to his instant mashed potatoes. He was pretty excited.
Later that night, a dune buggy of sorts with flashing red and blue lights came roaring in to the campground, driven by a man and a couple ladies from the Los Angeles area, and coated everyone’s campsites with a cloud of dust. Apparently the Spring is a popular place for off-roading and they were out for an evening drive. They were really nice people and they chatted with the group for a while. Katie informed them in a good-natured way that the next time they came up here, they better bring some trail magic for the hikers. They assured her that they would.
The next day was an easy 8 mile stretch to Walker Pass campground, where Gringo and John had been staying for a few days. The campground had little to offer other than a pit toilet and some picnic tables, so they were anxious to get going as soon as I was able to get there and keep an eye on a bag of food that Matthew’s brother was going to pick up soon. There was a water cache at one of the picnic tables, with a bunch of butter horns and an inexplicable amount of bread loaves.
I was also anxious, since my boyfriend Tim was on his way to Walker Pass to meet me and stay for a few days with us in the nearby town of Lake Isabella. One of the hardest things about being out here is being away from loved ones and I couldn’t wait for him to arrive. He pulled in to the campground later that evening with a cooler full of food and beverages and he couldn’t have been a more welcome sight. We stayed the night in the campground and I slept better than I had for a long time.
