Day 37 Monday 4.30.2018

Mile 517-534

Today was a lazy kind of day to start. We were awake by our normal times which for me is just after 6. I worked on the last bit of yesterday’s blog before everyone else woke up. The 4 of us just hung out in the Sheriffs Hut until 11 o’clock. I kept peeking out of the windows to see if there was any excitement happening but nothing showed up. We then took the shuttle to the Neenach Market. Yawn drove us over. He’s a former hiker. (Is anyone else seeing a pattern in these little town stops???) Along the way we pulled over and picked up Zack from Wisconsin. He had hiked in this morning and was hoping to just grab some lunch and head back out. The timing was perfect as he thought it was only 2 miles off trail to the cafe, it was actually 4 miles so he was thankful for the lift.

When we walked into the cafe we excited ran into Shrink and Farmer (hadn’t met Farmer until today but I’ve crossed paths with him a few times). They had already been talking to a group of older men–who were not hikers. In fact they were the town Mayor, a councilman and the owner of the Cafe, his name was a Richard. Richard is also the owner of HikerTown Hostel. Turns out we got the whooooole story about Richard first bought property in the area years ago. He used to be in the film industry and starting buying up land when this area was pretty much vacant. There had been talk about it being the next growing metropolis. Well the boom didn’t happen but one weekend when Richard and his wife were hanging out on their new property, he said his wife saw a “bunch of hobos” hanging out looking for water. Evidently the previous owner who had passed away was helping the hikers out back then. Richard knew nothing about the PCT. He ended up helping the out that day a later had more water faucets installed along the property. Well, long story short, his wife thought he’d gotten “rid” of them instead of helping them for quite sometime. Eventually she came to understand that these hikers weren’t just hobos. She started learning about their stories and dreams of hiking the PCT and she wanted to help however she could. They eventually started allowing the hikers to camp on their property and eventually started building the little huts that are still there today. Bob who helps to run HikerTown also restocks the water caches at the nearby trail junctions. He keeps the property running and collects donations from the hikers as they come through. And wouldn’t you know it, he was in the film industry too and has won 2 Emmys. All walks of life out here!

After lunch we all piled back into the shuttle. Shrink was planning to stay at HikerTown so he enjoyed his beer while we slowly organized our things and packed up. We knew the day would be somewhat fast as it was pretty much flat for the 17 miles that we covered today. We left HikerTown by 230pm and by 530 we’d covered almost 9 miles. I think the highlight was the time spent in the dark tho. With the full PINK moon this evening and the windmills in the surrounding areas, we actually had a sight most people would never see. Most of our cameras couldn’t capture the moment but I’ll just say it was pretty darn epic.

I should say that the entire Aqueduct wall was pretty easy in comparison to blogs I’ve read in the past. We were lucky to have cooler temps and some breeze today. And the water cache at the end makes it bearable as well. Thanks Bob!!!

We are currently camped near some windmills. The sounds they make are soothing. I’m sure we will all sleep well. Unless I get eaten by an animal…. cause yet again I spilled in my tent. I was told my inside cooking privileges will be taken away soon😆 It was just half the packet of hot chocolate powder but still, it made quite the mess in here.