Another early morning meant we got to Hiker Town in time to catch the 9 am shuttle to the Neenach Cafe, home of the Piglet, a two pound breakfast burrito. Hiker Town is a place created in some guy’s yard in the desert. There are several sheds built to look like a town, complete with post office, doctor, and city hall. We dropped off our packs and headed to the cafe for food and Internet.
After eating the Piglet, and an order of mozzarella sticks, I grabbed some snacks for the day from the attached convenience store and we headed back to Hiker Town to wait out the heat in the shade.
This is a place only a hiker could love. It had shade, water, and electricity. Three things that are pretty hard to find on the trail. We needed to rest up for our 17 mile waterless night hike along the LA aqueduct.
For 17 miles, we literally walked on or next to the LA aqueduct. We hiked into the night, walking by the nearly full moon, among the Joshua trees. Those 17 miles took us into the Manzana wind farm, where there’s some access to the water in the aqueduct for drinking. We cowboy camped among the windmills, getting to bed just before midnight.
In the morning, we continued hiking through windmills and came upon a wild horse. It was curious about us, but kept its distance.
After the wind farm we had one water source in a canyon, followed by almost 17 more waterless miles, this time in the heat of the day. We loaded up on water and began hiking. At the peak of the climb, we spotted something. Trail magic! There was a water cache with chairs and tables.
We rested for awhile but decided we needed to head out. We heard Coppertone was nearby and he would have ice cream and pop. We started hiking in the hot weather hoping to make it to the road and catch the trail angel.
After crossing over the pass after our climb, we were met with another wind farm. This one was much larger, with nearly 5000 windmills (they had an info sign.)
We hiked fast in the heat and nearly ran out of water before we were rewarded with not just one trail angel, but two. Legend was in the parking lot and he was going to make a spaghetti dinner.
We loaded up on food before camping a little up the trail in a picnic area. We have 8 more miles before we hitchhike to Tehachapi and stay in a hotel with a swimming pool. Also, Legend is making pancakes for breakfast.
Life is good.
(I’m cowboy camping again. I just saw a mouse run by. Kinda wish I would have set up my tent.)