Sunday, May 29th - Winds blowing at 50-60 knots and rain.

Dad called this afternoon and said that he was back in Tehachapi...what? That's backwards. Well, here's the story. They left Tehachapi on Saturday and got about 6-7 miles out (approx. 4500' level) and decided to put up for the night right there. There were winter warnings and gale force winds (approx. 50-60 knots, he said) and he couldn't even set up his tent, so laid his sleeping bag right out on the ground and crawled in. At about 2 am it started to rain. Not what a hiker wants when the wind is already blowing ferociously!! He put on every article of clothing he had and put a garbage bag around the bottom of his sleeping bag to try and keep partially dry. At around 6 am he decided that he'd just get up and walk on ahead to see if he could reach a wind break. So on ahead he went to approx. the 6200' level (by himself, mind you). At this point the wind was blowing so hard that he could literally push his body forward and not fall down. He did come around a ledge however, and the wind got him and knocked him down. His reaction was "Well, this is nuts". So he got up and decided that it wasn't probably the safest thing to continue on by himself. So back down he headed. He reached the other party that had gone as far as the night before with him - still in their tents (smart people). Dad decided since the wind was still howling and he was drenched to the skin and his sleeping bag was sopping wet, that he'd head back to Tehachapi to dry out and warm up.

He found/called a trail angel to see if he could get a ride into town and she said she'd be there in 15 minutes. Sure enough!! She took him into Tehachapi where he decided to forego the typical Best Western for a po-dunk hotel. Po-dunk was right. It had no heat and no towels in the bathroom, which he didn't discover until he'd already taken the last layer off. Needless to say, it all ended up ok. He took the longest, hottest shower he could stand, got something to eat and was ready to wait the weather out until it decided to let up; wind and rain.

To be continued....