Jun 19th - Through the WIND TUNNEL

Woke up to find Tortoise-Express and I think it's "I'm fine" camping right beside me.  Never heard them hike in last night.  I said hello to Tortoise but never saw who was in the other tent.  The trail ahead had dozens of PCT signs, sometimes three of them within a few feet of each other and no intersecting trail or other reason to need a sign.  Considering the day before there were many places I was unsure which way the trail went I'd like to suggest they take some of those signs and relocate them back a few miles.  LOL.   Crossed a ridge and smelled the unmistakable smell of Poodle-dog-bush.   It has been days since the Poodle-dog-bush had been seen and I thought I was finally safe of them.  Sure enough ahead was a new patch of the beast.  Hope it's the last of it.  At Casa de Luna, Terri said that last year several hikers had to be taken to the hospital for steroid shots because of the poodle-dog, and one person, who thought a young plant without the flowers on it was a pot plant, actually smoked it and his lips swelled up to six inches.  Sounds like rumor to me but she said it was true.  Nice unexpected water cache on a hill with a chair under a blanket hung in the trees for shade.  Yesterday the wind farm was depressing with none of the blades turning - today made up for it.  Tahachapi Pass has miles and miles of of them.  There must have been thousands of them.  On every hill and bump were rows of wind turbines; old and new.  The wind was roaring - very exciting to hike through.  Kept loosing my hat and despite sun screen; my head and face is sand blasted, wind burned, sun burned and whipped with my own pack straps.  A very neat day hiking through the wind farms.


Made a dinner of black beans, fresh vegetables (cabbage, red sweet peppers, carrots), sausage and cheese on tortillas last night.  Tasted great and glad I had eaten them because today with the gusting head wind I needed the constant flow of gas out my back end to keep me level in this wind.  Peeing in the wind became a new art form - but no worries; I think my pants are cleaner now where the pee landed on them.  Not many places out of the wind to camp.  Yesterday I had to put rocks on my sleeping pad and sleeping bag in order to get up to go pee at night.  Otherwise it would have blown away.  I finally scored a good spot out of the wind and I can hear the wind turbines whine and the sound of the wind gusting but I am mostly sheltered.