Day 53, Spanish Needle Creek to Manter Creek

The trail left our campsite at Spanish Needle Creek with a short climb of less than 400 feet. A smooth footpath, switchbacks, and cool, cloudy weather made the ascent especially easy.

Once the trail reached near 7,000 feet in elevation, it continued along a ridge for a couple miles.

Some rugged mountains appeared ahead, but the trail remained smooth and easy.

The steroid shot I was given in Tehachapi to treat a cough I developed about three weeks ago had not helped at all. In fact, the cough was getting worse and in recent days I’ve had a runny nose.

I’ve enjoyed the desert, but lately, my nose and throat have been miserable.

Because it wasn’t a clear day, the views weren’t as good today as most days. If it were clear, I might have been able to see the town of Pearsonville, which was on the other side of a ridge in the Mojave Desert. Not that there would have been much to see there if I could.

The town has a population of 17. It was known as the "Hubcap Capital of the World” because of a resident's collection of 80,000 hubcaps, but those are reportedly gone now.

With limited views and the possibility of hiking extra far today, I put on my earbuds to listen to a podcast and pushed on, stopping only for lunch when I reached Chimney Creek. I ate quickly and didn’t collect any water.

A couple miles later I arrived at Fox Mill Spring, where I finally filtered some water. I hadn’t been drinking as much as normal today because of the cool weather.

While I stopped I took a look at the map. I saw just 10.4 miles remained to reach Manter Creek, so I decided to go for it.

I hadn’t seen any tramily members in a long while, but I figured they were making the same decision.

It was easy to put my head down and power ahead because the views remained mostly uninteresting. There were a number of burnt trees along the way, but not much else that was interesting to see.

Frustratingly, though, there were several false summits. In hiking terms, that means just when you think you’ve reached the top of a climb, you discover there is yet more climbing to go.

The climb eventually topped out at 8,000 feet. From there I could again see something interesting: snow-capped mountains in the Sierra. Admittedly, I didn’t see them well because of the clouds, and some of the clouds looked like snowy mountains.

I was grateful for the clouds and cool breeze. Otherwise, this section of trail would have been miserable on a hot day.

The descent was easy as it followed a canyon down to where Manter Creek crossed the trail.

As I neared the bottom of the canyon, I could see where the others had camped. I shouted, “Woohoo!” to let them know I had arrived, but also to celebrate the end of the last full day on the trail.

The campsite was flat with plenty of room for our tents, but the soil was so sandy it was difficult to keep tent stakes in the ground. There weren’t many rocks big enough to help anchor the tent guy ropes. With extra effort, I was eventually able to keep my tent pitched without blowing over.

We didn’t linger during our last dinner together on the trail. The evening quickly turned cool and no one wanted to stay outside for long. Later, a brief rain fell.