Day 27 – I’m melting…
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 33
I started this morning in a typical Mason fashion: snoozing my alarm until the last second. Don’t worry though, I managed to barely catch the moment the sun peeked over the horizon. Success!
Everyone knew today was going to be hot, because we were losing elevation, it’s the summer, and this section of the desert is notorious for being awful. From Guthooks:”One of the more notorious sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, for about twenty miles the trail walks along the flat, hot, dry corner of the Mojave desert along the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Hikers often walk this section at night, or early in the morning, to avoid the blistering heat.” Sounds like fun!
I walked about ten miles down to Hikertown, a strange little fake town run by a guy named Gandhi. The hike down was mostly fine, but my right shoe has something wrong with the rock plate I think, because without any insoles, there are raised portions under my toes. This was starting to cause a blister on my big toe so I taped it, but that tape (and probably the rock plate) caused a blister on my second toe. Whoops.
The strange little place called Hikertown
When I got to Hikertown, I refilled my water and sat in the shade for a while before looking in the hiker box to see if I needed anything. As it turns out, with my water bladder popping yesterday and my shoe giving out today, I did need some things! I grabbed a 1L Platypus bladder and a few new pairs of shoes to try on. There were a few options for shoes, but I ended up choosing some of my same shoe, only bigger. They look a little like clown shoes on me, but their sole is flat on the inside, so I don’t care.
New shoes, old shoes, small shoes
After about two hours in Hikertown, I set off towards Tehachapi around noon. If you remember what that excerpt said about the LA Aqueduct, you may realize that noon is just about the exact opposite of the time you should be hiking the aqueduct. I did it anyway and actually had a really great time, mostly because this was the first day I listened to music on the trail. Something about my music broke up the monotony and made hiking six hours of roads enjoyable.
That’s not to say it wasn’t hot. It was hot. Like really hot.
When I eventually made it to the next water source, I ran into the remnants of the previous night’s hikers hiding under a bridge from the sun. I was told that there were about fifteen of them that left Hikertown around midnight and had been waiting at the bridge for most of the day. When I told them I just hiked it starting at noon, I was awarded a gold star, though I’m not sure if it was for idiocy or valor. Either way, I made it to water and was going to drink to my heart’s content.
A+ to Drum Solo for the important water report details
I sat with some people and ate some dinner to prepare to hike to the next water source so that we could make it into town tomorrow. The hike has been through endless wind turbines, which are oddly fascinating to me. They’re HUGE and really impressive.
I’m still in the process of figuring out what my plan is for Tehachapi, so we’ll see what happens. Mostly I just need a burger, a shower, and some laundry and I’ll be a happy boy.