Day 36 4.29.2018 Sunday

Mile 496-517The wind howled all night! Thankfully I had my best pitch to date on the Duplex so she was standing tall when I woke up at 0630. Where we had camped was on a forest service road. When we got there at a little past 10 PM, there were two cars parked. This morning when I woke up I met a lady named Diane. She and her husband section hike the trail whenever they get a chance. Diane came over and said hello to me. She asked about our adventure thus far and where we were all from. I wish I would’ve gotten her last name. She also asked if she could take a photo of me. I’m sure that’s going to be a good funny one for sure. I was all sorts of a mess this morning.

Fireman was the first one to leave camp. He didn’t have much food in his bag so he’s pretty lightweight. He said he was definitely going to HikerTown to resupply. Which was our planned stop for the day. Hiker Town is a Hostel in Lancaster. If you were driving by, you’d probably do a random double-take but never stop to take a look. I’ll leave it at that. What it did provide for us was a cheap place to stay out of the wind and we met a nice section hiker named Jimmy.

The miles to get here seemed to last forever. We left our stealth camp at 8am. I cross the 500 mile mark just before 11 AM. Pretty crazy that I’ve made it this far! With the weather being slightly cooler today, the hiking was easier but the miles (again) last forever. We only saw one other hiker all day today and that was Shrink. We arrived at HikerTown just before 6. Not really knowing what the situation was here, we found an empty ‘room’ and dropped our bags. Jimmy was looking to crash here as well which is how we got to talking with him. We finally found Bob who is running the place — he was out stocking the water caches on the trail– and asked if we could stay in the ‘sheriff’ room. He said sure but wondered how we’d get 4 people in there. We didn’t care, we just wanted out of the wind. It was hurting over 20mph last I looked.

So Jimmy drove us to the store to get some food at a cafe. The cafe unfortunately was closed so we had yet another round of junk food for the night and some beers. Jimmy is waiting for his buddy to show up tomorrow. They are going to section hike a hundred miles in the next 5 days. He said prior to 3 years ago he’d never hiked a mile in his life. Then (as I like to say) LIFE happened, he went through a divorce and lost his job. He found himself hiking one mile at time, building the stamina to get out and do more. He says since then he’s hiked 1200 miles all around San Diego and the surrounding areas. He’s got aspirations to hike Whitney in the next few years. He’s currently crashed in his car as he didn’t want to stay in the hut with us. (That’s right Bonhams…. it feels like I’m in the hut right now!)

The forecast for Monday is looking slightly better. The wind looks like it will continue to blow through our next section. LA Aqueduct here we come. The aqueduct is a notoriously known section for its boredom and heat. You cannot camp on the aqueduct so you pretty much have to get it done as fast as you can. Most people usually night hike it to escape the heat but fortunately I don’t think that will even be a concern for us tomorrow.

We ended the evening with Justin and Laura on the couches. Tyler and I took the floor space. Justin let me use his sleep pad — which I ordered days again and should have order a year ago. We laughed over random questions I like to ask from a book that I have on my iPhone. It’s a fun way to ask random things to people you don’t know well and wouldn’t normally ask. There’s always one question that gets answered and then just leads to giggles of laughter. This evenings question: What side of the bed do you sleep on and why? You always have admire people’s honesty and tonight was one of those nights.

Until tomorrow.