June 2. Day 32.

Acton KOA to Vasquez Rocks County Park (mile 452.9).

Miles hiked: 8.9.

The KOA today was quite a contrast to yesterday. The 30 or so hikers who were there all day yesterday trickled out last night I. The cool evening or early this morning. Only Krusher and I remained. Then only 5 or 6 other hikers arrived all day. I would have liked to leave with he group, but I was waiting around for the new shoes Libby ordered to arrive. So I had a lazy first half of the day, complete with a Budweiser with breakfast, 2 naps, shuffling photos from my phone to a thumb drive, getting blog posts ready to upload, and reading the first 100 pages of Snow Falling On Cedars, which I found in the hiker box tent. 

The shoes arrived by 1 but I didn't want to hike out in the mid-dY heat, and instead had my second nap and tried to talk with but mostly just listened to one of he new hikers who really does a lot of talking.

Finally around 5 I got motivated, packing, stretching, and having a Frapaccino and one last fruit ice cream bar to help keep my teeth brown and rotting.

I got walking a bit before 6, taking the trail up into some low hills with big outcroppings of sedimentary rock. There were little caves here and there and in one I watched a Raven feeding its nestling. The colors on the hills as the sun set were wonderful, with lots of white flowering yucca amongst the sparse scrub. Rock Wrens hopped around chattering on the outcroppings, and Lark Sparrows perched on bushes see in to know how good they looked.

I made good time and got to interstate 14 at mile 350 by 8. There was a long dark tunnel to get under the road, and on the other side I was poured out into the Vasquez Rocks, which is a fantastic canyon of intricately eroded sandstone, with all sort of little caves and twisty formations in the layered rock. It was sort of unfortunate that it was mostly dark while I walked through the canyon, but on the other hand it was really neat in the pale light just before the big moon came up. I also got to listen to what I'm pretty sure we're Barn Owl nestlings screech while a parent circled around the canyon, and saw another family of Ravens in another high up cave.

Around mile 552 I made a wrong turn and went about a tenth of a mile the wrong way before getting things figured out. As I turned around to backtrack I saw a pair of eyes looking back into my headlamp light, about 30 meters downhill of the trail I was on. I walked a bit closer to try and see what it was, still staying on the trail. We stood there in a little standoff for a few minutes, and I couldn't see what it was. Eventually though it turned and bound d away down the hill, in a way that was unmistakably feline. I couldn't quite tell how big it was or how long the tail was, but in both features it was somewhere in between Bobcat and Mountain Lion. I'm not sure if it had been following me, or if it was just a coincidence that it happened to be there downhill of me when I turned around. But for the rest of the evening's hike I kept scanning behind me now and then looking for that pair of eyes again. I sort of hope I can catch up to the big groups that's 12-24 hours ahead of me so maybe I won't have to do too much night walking alone. I know of course that the chances of any sort of dangerous encounter with a mountain lion are remarkably slim, but statistics don't really do much to ease the strain of seeing a set of eyes watching you from not for off the trail.

Got to the Vasquez Rocks Day Use Area a little after 9, quickly set up camp and ate my can of sardines and some crackers, talked with Libby, and got into bed.

I'm not sure what my internet capabilities will be like over the next week or so. You might not hear from me until I get to Tehachapi in 5ish days.

Birds:

Brewer's Blackbird

Song Sparrow 

Yellow Warbler 

Western Scrub-jay 

Rock Wren

Common Raven - nestling

Spotted Towhee 

California Towhee 

Lark Sparrow

Mourning Dove 

Black-headed Grosbeak 

Northern Flicker 

California Quail

Common Poor-will