Date: May 18, 2017
Miles: 504.5 – 517.6
I wandered down from the woods and into the strangest place I’ve yet to encounter on the trail – Hikertown. The story that I got from the local store owner on this place was that a retired movie producer bought the property without knowing that it had long been a PCT pit stop, and figured it out when a bunch of hikers showed up during a family barbecue. From then on, he kept the place open for hikers to stay and get laundry and showers done. The place has a bunch of buildings made up to look like a store, post office, school, etc. The vibe is post-apocalypse wild West. And there is a desperate need for hand sanitizer.
I decided to stay the night to wait for my buddies to get in the next morning, so I spent the rest of the day getting clean and eating food from the market down the street and not doing much else.
As the sun started to go down and the temperature dropped into the bearable range, people set out to night-hike the upcoming aqueduct portion of the desert and Hikertown started to look more like a ghost town. I grabbed a cot in the garage and laid awake for awhile, watching the bobbing of headlamps come up the driveway I was facing as a few hikers wandered in after dark.
