Date: June 5, 2017
Miles: 8.2 miles (13.2km), from Tylerhorse Canyon to mile 549.7.
Health: My right shin is hurting badly. Every step hurst.

We sleep in the shade of a large tree and I keep dozing off but not falling in to deep sleep. The sun keeps moving so I have to constantly switch places, and the ants keep getting into my sleeping bag. I do however get some sleep as every time I wake up, there are new people under the tree. Soon every inch of shade is used by a hiker. It doesn't even need to be flat.

Once the sun starts to set, everyone perks up a little. Packs are being packed up and slowly people head out to the heat. We wait for a little longer as there's no reason to go out too early.

While we wait the girls sing show tunes and everyone's having a good time. While I'm tired I'm still in a good mood. I use KT tape to tape my shin hoping that would help. Queso and Pony also give me some muscle relaxers and stronger painkillers. Thank you guys!

Then we slowly start heading out, one by one. The hike is beautiful as we watch the sun set behind the mountains and paint the windmill farm down below with golden hues.

The trail is relatively easy. There are few longer climbs but mostly it's nice and even. During one long climb the sun finally goes behind the mountains and all light goes out. It's time to take out the headlamps.

As I climb the shin that has been good so far starts hurting more and more. Soon I have to seriously slow down. I take more painkillers but they don't seem to work. I'm forced to limb again.

I look at the map and I'm 10.6 miles from the road where we hitch to Tehachapi. I know I can't do that with this leg tonight. There's a nice campsite few miles up, and from there it would be mostly downhill to the road. I decide to do the rest tomorrow and just make it to that campsite for tonight.

Sunshine, Roller, and Fireant taking a break.

Even those few miles to the campsite are too much and by the time I make it there, my shin is hurting so bad that I have tears in my eyes. Thankfully others have had the same idea to camp here so I pull up next to Blis and set up my cowboy camp. It wouldn't make much sense to get to the road in the middle of the night as hitchhiking to town would be kind of sketchy.

Those were some hard 8 miles. It doesn't look good. I quickly fall asleep as I'm still tired from previous night.