New Valley Hills

No regrets about flipping up. The desert had become type 2 fun and it was making me miserable thinking about another ~250 miles in higher heat – that’s type 3 fun! For the last two days I’d been taking trail shortcuts to minimise effort in the sun.

I slept well last night in the cool mountain air. It feels wonderful to have trees, shade, a breeze and elevation gain to get great views

80 miles drive north equated 235 wiggly miles walking through 40C desert. The Uber taxi cost the same as 2 weeks of hiking consumables- food, meals, snacks, paid-for camp grounds etc. An exorbitant amount of dosh that I’d never consider spending at home on a taxi, but the maths make sense out here.

Ridgecrest, a popular resupply town 10 miles east of Walker Pass had hit 42C three days ago. A hiker got rescued from the trail near there after contracting heat stroke. 80 miles north east is Furnace Creek, Death Valley – one of the hottest places on the planet. And then the terrible news about Michael Mosley.

Two nights prior I’d been woken at night by two events, and surprised by what I saw when I woke up. Around 10pm I was bolt upright by the sound of a big cat nearby. I think it was a bobcat- https://youtu.be/HldqGzGvt10. At midnight woken again by the sound of a jet plane overhead really low. I thought it was a Starlink satellite launch as I could see a line of lights flying across the night sky. It could’ve been – the California launch date was the day before and the satellites are visible for a night or two after launch – https://earthsky.org/space/spacex-starlink-satellites-explained/. After being in the High Sierra for a few days and seeing and hearing pairs of USAF fighter jets on manoeuvres, I’ve revised my estimation – I think I did see satellites ascending the day after launch, and also a couple of fighter jets on low altitude flypasts. If you’ve ever been to an air show you’ll know how loud these can be. The third event was in the morning – my bear can had been knocked over in the night. It weighs ~9 pounds, there was no howling gale that could’ve pushed it over, what did that? I’ll never know.

The night before, leaving Mount Baden Powell, I was tired and looking for a close-by camp spot when I remembered I was in bear country. Earlier that day I’d seen the first evidence of this – bear proof food storage lockers at campgrounds.

Overtaken by Shelby and Taylor I had sudden fear of camping alone. I picked up my pace and we three arrived at a busy tent site at dusk where I gratefully fell asleep surrounded by people. In the morning Taylor awoke to find his kit had been disturbed overnight and spread many feet from his cowboy camping. A raccoon he reckoned, having hiked in California all his life.