Today I took a short day into Tehachapi. My pack was super light, almost empty and my legs were feeling so fresh. I only had 8.8 miles,14.2 km to get to the road and hitch into town. Once in town I had all afternoon to relax before checking in to a hotel for a couple of nights.

I woke up before dawn, and packed away my gear. An early night last night helped me get moving early and I was on the trail at 7:30 am. The trail crosses through another windfarm, and once again wind turbines fill the landscape.

For most of the morning the trail is flat, or gently descending. I make good time through the windfarm and soon I can see the road a couple of miles ahead. When I get to the road, it’s only about 5 minutes before someone pulls over to take me to town.

When we get to town, my driver spends an extra 10 minutes to drive around and show me all the spots. We go past a well known German bakery, the town’s Walmart, the local outdoors shop, a Mexican restaurant and a Chinese buffet. After the tour I get dropped off in the middle of town. For the first time, I’m arriving in town feeling like I have a pretty good handle on the place.

My first stop is the German bakery, they make sandwiches to order on homemade breads. They also have a huge cabinet full of cookies, pastries, and sweet treats. I grab a roast beef sandwich with all the trimmings, a chocolate chunk cookie and a chocolate custard eclair, with unlimited coffee refills.

At the bakery I bump into Ninja, Fortune Cookie and Star, the three other hikers I’ve been with since Wrightwood. Ninja has managed to get us a room in a hotel on the cheap. We all check in for $20 each per night.

We settle in, get some laundry going and head to the burger joint just down the road. The burgers are pretty good, but really what we’re saving ourselves for is the famed Chinese buffet tomorrow night. It’s great to finally get good town food, a proper shower, and sleep in a real bed knowing that tomorrow is going to be a zero mile day.