Day 30, The Road to Hikertown

Part 1, The Desert, Day 30

The Road to Hikertown

Miles: 21.5

PCT Mile: 517.6

Crazy day today. But let's start with last night. I'm very proud of my tent, because last night was wet and I  stayed dry all night. I put my nylon ground tarp inside my tent last night instead of under it, and it worked wonders. I slept ok and was pretty darn comfy too, but the outside was still wet and muddy in the morning. I took my  time this morning and slept in until 7am. I walked to the house and Joe was cooking pancakes for everyone.

pancakes make me go nutsI tell ya, these trail angels, The Anderson's, are just amazing. I would have loved to experience this place on a regular, non rainy night, but they still made us feel like family.

The Powerhouse Fire detour from 2013, started 2 miles from here, so Terri Anderson drove us to the start of the detour at 10:30.

There were quite a few of us squeezed into that van, and I started walking with Dundee, and Hedgehog and Tree Man, a really cool couple from Berlin. Today was different, because the detour went 21.5 miles on roads. Nobody was really excited for the foot smashing 21.5 mile road walk, but we started walking anyway, (and many hikers hitch hiked there and skipped the walk, but that's their decision.) I went ahead by myself and the first 7.5 miles wasn't bad. There was a dirt shoulder to walk on, and it was cold. The first part went by fast. 

here is the first of many llamas I saw:

This house had a cooler of sodas for hikers and a nice note, but as soon as I got close enough to read it, some dogs almost castrated me.

There were many signs for some ostrich farm, and I grew more excited with each sign. ( I eventually saw the ostriches, but they were too far away to get a good pic) I really want to ride an ostrich, like, into battle. seems pretty cool.

7.5 miles in, I came to Lake Hughes, so I bought a Gatorade, so i could use the container for water storage in the Mojave, then I went across the street to the Rock Inn.

I sat at the bar and ordered this:

When your hiking, there's nothing better than rolling into town and getting town food. it's just such a difference from trail food, and its always fun. I took off down the road with 14 more miles to go.

I stopped at this fence and this adorable trio of animals was following me and making funny noises, It was a goat, a donkey, and a mini horse.

I tried to get a selfie with them, but I'm bad at selfies:

Here's the crew all together. This was really fun for me. surreal. This really made me happy. I thought about quitting my hike and joining this crew. They just seemed to have it all figured out.

I continued on down the lonely road. There was very little traffic; maybe 1 car every 10 minutes. 

After awhile, the walk got sort of creepy. This is such a lonely road, and I was the only soul out there. The wind was blowing, and I heard things creep and squeak, and old abandoned houses and such dotted the landscape. 21 miles on a road is such a long walk. It took me over 7 hours, and it got so incredibly boring. 

There were storm clouds on the horizon, which made me walk a bit faster. It felt weird and lonely out here, much more lonely than the wilderness ever is, and I didn't want to have to camp here.

I put my headphones in to help deal with the monotony of the road walk, but my battery on my ipod died. C'mon!

I was trying to make a fashion statement with this selfie.

Around mile 17, my feet were in the aching process, and every step made me want to pass out. I'm resolved to keep going at these moments, since there was no place to really rest on the road walk.

I saw a tumbleweed slowly roll up and across the road. I always thought tumbleweeds were myths, but it captivated me in my delusional road-weary state. Just then a truck sped towards me. A young girl was driving. I looked at the tumbleweed, then at the truck, then at the weed, and so on, and the girl must have seen the look of pure excited anticipation on my face because she burst out laughing, just before she obliterated the tumbleweed with her truck. It was really funny and I had a good laugh about it.

I finally hit 20 miles and reached highway 138, only 1 mile from my destination. It took me awhile to get my direction correct, but I eventually wandered into Hikertown in the beautiful dying light of the desert. It was a very, very strange place. 

A very quiet, dusty place, run by one man. Nobody was around, and the only sound was the wind.

I thought I was in the wrong place until Bear Bait ran out of a small structure labeled "school house" and gave me the tour. The place is owned by a man named Bob, and he lets hikers stay here before they go off into the Mojave. For 10 bucks, hikers can sleep in one of the many tiny rooms that dot the dusty desert property. The rooms have no electricity, plumbing, really nothing except a bed. They're labeled and decorated like a town set; Dr.'s office, hotel, sheriff, jail, etc. I rented City Hall for the night.

I guess that makes me the mayor of Hikertown tonight. The room has only one thing in it; This bed. But its totally worth it because it's very windy and very, very cold out tonight.

I played with this little cutey-pie. He really wanted my water bottle, but I need it.

The desert sunset was beautiful tonight with the clouds dominating the sky:

I joined the other hikers in the bunkhouse garage and cooked some ramen, and we all hung out until about 9pm.

It was a fun time, and we're all getting ready for the Mojave tomorrow, and this last stretch of desert. I simply cannot believe how fast all of this has gone by, its crazy. I'm finally starting to feel like a thru-hiker. I'm in no hurry in my hiking schedule, especially since I'm waiting for some of the snow to melt in the Sierras, but in really getting excited for what's to come. The desert has one last challenge though. Wind, long waterless stretches, and of course, the Mojave Desert.