It was so windy last night, but my tent held up. At around 330a, I heard a whistle and people screaming "BILLY!" or maybe it was "KELLY!" But found out it was really "ELLIE." Then the people shined a huge light on my tent as they were walking down the ridge. We all were woken up and were like wtf is going on. They said they were looking for someone named Ellie according to the GPS coordinates, and she was supposed to be right there. I tried going back to sleep but it was hard. This messed up my wake up time so I didn't get up till around five. It turns out some girl named Ellie accidentally pushed her spot for help and search and rescue came out looking for her in the middle of the night.

So many interesting things to see out here.

It was a really nice morning watching the sun rise glow pink illuminating the wind farm that I could see down below. The first few miles were going to be climbing. We packed out 5L for a dry 25 mile stretch hoping to do 20 today. Most of the day was on a ridge and super windy. I wanted to make it past 10 today before my first break and finally took it at mile 11.45. It's so nice to know I can go for that long before taking my first break which is usually my lunch break. Still trying to make it to ten by 10am. I think that's a good motivator and goal for me. My body always feel so much better in the mornings and in the afternoon, I am super sluggish. I wasn't super hungry yet, I think bc I ate an extra snack in the morning. I love when I'm starving for lunch by that break, more motivation. I couldn't get comfortable and lay down bc there were red ants crawling everywhere. GB joined me about 45 minutes later, so we decided to eat lunch anyways. I was pretty restless so after about an hour and a half, I took off again since I didn't feel super tired. I told him I'd meet him at the first highway if we didn't see L&R.

The rest of the trail to the highway was back into a windfarm but soooo windy. I was literally getting blown sideways. There were some dark clouds so I felt a few sprinkles on me. I finally made it to the highway and found a picnic bench to wait for the others. GB came shortly and said he never saw L&R. Both of us were thinking of just hitching into tehachapi from there. Our original plan was hike a few miles out to camp and hitch from the second highway but we'd still be in the windfarm and there would be nowhere to camp/super windy. After some debating in the cold wind, I think we both were thinking the same thing and wanted to head out. We texted L&R our new plan since we waited for about two hours and then a few moments later, Rusty comes down the trail. Lisa's ankle has been hurting pretty bad and they were also thinking of the same exact thing.

We then hitched to the tehachapi airport. The town is super spread out so doing errands is tricky. We'd have to hitch to each place. We heard there was $5 camping at the airport so we wanted to scope it out. We walked into the gate and passed a bunch of old planes that were longer being used and rounded the corner to a grassy area where there tons of tents set up. I finally ran into Lachlan again! I thought I'd never see him again. The last time I saw him was at Mt. Laguna and he'd been always ahead of me so I would just follow his photos. We caught up and he gave me the skinny on the town. There's also a train track right next to us that blares the horn every so often.

We set up our tents and walked over to the BBQ place for dinner. It was ok. I was reminded again why I don't like bbq that much. I thought the sides were so much better. I went to the restroom and looked into the mirror. My face was like three shades darker than what it normally is. I literally couldn't tell who I was anymore. I think 10% of it was just dirt though. We were all so tired and wanted to go to bed ASAP. Rusty and I stopped by the quick e mart to look for some ice cream. I was so full so I couldn't share a pint with him so I just got an ice cream sandwich. We walked back to the campsite and saw such a pretty sunset at the terminal. This pace is so cool. I am so thankful for soft grass and a perfect pitch. I also found a port a potty that smelled nice. All the ones near the camp are super full and smelly. So even if I have to walk all the way across the field to use it, it's worth it.