Wednesday May 21, 13.3mi/21.4km

Highway 58 PCT (211.1/3840ft) to Sweet Ridge PCT (224.4/5870ft) (CA)

I had a lazy morning in the hotel room, just snacking and watching TV. I checked out at 11am, went to the hardware store in the post office, and came across this neat monument on the walk.

Apparently in the 1880s, Borax was mined in Death Valley, and transported to the railroad here in Mojave CA. It was a long journey across mountains and desert, so it took a team of 20 mules to haul it. Hence, “20 Mule Team Borax”. Neat! I also got an answer as to why the Family Dollar store was closed, a family of aggressive squirrels was living there and they haven’t yet been able to remove them all. Ha! I caught the bus at 12:30 and was back on trail before 1pm. I noticed like a dozen hikers getting on the bus to go into town, seems to be quite a popular service. There was a sign posted at the trailhead, informing hikers of a wildfire about 30 miles to the north.

After hiking for only a couple of minutes I came across a water cache, which I normally would have skipped, but I saw they had lemonade powder and that sounded delicious.

The trail followed the highway for a couple of miles.

I could tell I was at a lower elevation with all of the blooming cacti.

And then I started a big 2500-foot climb up into the mountains.

It was pretty warm, but I just kept a steady pace and before I knew it, I was on top of the ridge.

Looking South, back to all the wind turbines and the town of Mojave behind them.

I was confused about the random bright red caution sign. There were no hazards nearby.

I followed the ridgeline for the rest of the afternoon, with a good portion of that hiking on an old dirt road.

It was pretty hilarious to see a speed limit sign since no one is driving this road.

Occasionally I would hike through a nice meadow where it was quite windy, which actually felt really nice when it was 75°F.

Much to my surprise, I came across a small group of wind turbines, I thought I was done with them.

It was pretty windy, so after finding a spot to camp, I followed my usual procedure in the wind, and made dinner in the tent.

I ended up using almost all of my water, but it’s only 3 miles to a water source tomorrow so it’s fine. It’s a quiet night with just the white noise of the wind turbines, the hordes of PCT hikers must be camped elsewhere.