Day 46 - Liz

I found 2 "drafts" that hadn't been published, one each by Mel and Liz. I suspect they just lost their connection before they could do it. Here they are. - Greg

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May 30

It's been a tough few days thru the Mojave and I've been too tired to write at the end of the day. The last two days we've been in Tehachapi resupplying and resting our weary feet. I think I finally figured out why my feet swell so much. I've been taking ibuprofen daily for the pain and swelling but I just read that ibuprofen can instead cause swelling in some people. I stopped it yesterday and today there isn't any swelling,just pain, yippie. I'm switching to Tylenol and we'll see how that does for the pain.

 Prior to reaching Tehachapi we night hiked and rested during the heat of the day. Luckily we didn't have any encounters with the dreaded Mojave green rattlesnake, they're aggressive and don't always rattle to warn you. I did have a scorpion that got too close to my sleeping bag that I had to dispatch before it got to close. I shouldn't have told Melinda, I forgot she was once bitten by a scorpion, she didn't get much sleep that night.

We got a ride to Hikertown from trail angel Linda, who happens to read our blog. Thanks Linda, I appreciate your interest.

We got to have a great lunch with another blog reader, Mary, in Agua Dulca. She had lots of great questions and it was fun to chat with her. 

We spent a night at Casa de Luna, the Andersons home. It truly is a hippie daycare. What an experience sitting in their front yard with 15-20 other hikers just relaxing drinking water, soda, beer, wine, and the younger kids enjoying other forms of substance abuse. The dinner of taco salad was amazing and we had pancakes and coffee in the morning before being driven back to the trail head. 

It's not always about the hiking but also about the people we meet and the new encounters we're having.