Miles: 26.8 

Total Trail Miles: 534.9 

Ascent/Descent: 1541/3359 ft 

Start Time: 06:42 

End Time: 01:03 (AM next day)

Temperature: 31°C (88°F)

I was very pleased to wake to a dry tent after a warm dry night, and there was a beautiful sunrise poking through the pines. We had 10 miles of mostly descent until we got Hikertown where we would rest for the afternoon before tackling the aquaduct that night, it was going to be a big day. We wanted to get to hikertown as soon as possible to avoid the midday heat (we were now officially entering into the mojave) and to maximise our rest before the night hike. I arrived just before 10 on the phone to Tass for the last section. Ghost and Beer Slide has also arrived so we jumped into a ride to take us a few miles down the road to a shop and cafe called Neenach where we would hang out for the day. Yeehaw and Shortcut arrived a little after. We along with other hikers placed ourselves on the tables and chairs outside the little shop ringing to stay in the shade of the little awning hiding from the hot hot heat, boy it was hot. The shop was cooler and has fans soo every now and then we would go in to buy another drink or snack or just stand near the freezer. We eventually bought a bag of ice that we could add to our drinks and put in ziplocks to hold against us to cook us down. We chatted with other hikers and played lots of cards and the day passed pretty quickly. Before we knew it it was nearing 5pm and we started to prepare for the night hike. Pysche a 22 year old American was going to join us for the night hike too.. We all bought a big box of wine to share and divided it up between bottles each, along with 3 litres of water to get us through. I ordered a vegan bean burger to have as a midnight snack and we got a ride back to hikertown. We set off just after 6 as the sun was low in the sky and the temperature a bit more bearable. We had to walk on dirt tracks for 3 miles before reaching the aqueduct but they passed quickly with us chatting and laughing and enjoying the wine that we had cooked in the freezer in the shop before we left. We reached the aqueduct for sunset and it was really beautiful, we walked on it most of the time the pipe was exposed enjoying the novelty but taking short breaks on the first track next to it. soon the pipe was fully underground and just a concrete looking road lying over it to identify it, we mostly then walked on the dirt track next to it as it was softer on the feet. We took lots of short breaks to give a moments rest to our toes feet and bodies but were full of excitement and fairly energised for the first 4-5 hours. As it got dark the stars started to appear and it was beautiful. As we got more tired we started to play some music to keep us going and listened and had group sing a longs to alt roxk of the 90s, greenday, chillis, tenacious d ect. The last couple of hours was were it got really hard, our feet ached soo much and we were so exhausted used to a 7pm bedtime, but we persevered and pushed through until we started to walk into the wind farm with the big turbines with there red blinking lights looming above us in the dark and we knew we were near the river where we would stop. We arrived just after 1am and set up our tents (no rain fly again for me tonight) and crawled into bed as soon as we could knowing a lie in would be hard due to the light and heat.