Day 31 – Saturday, June 24

PCT Mile 508.1 to Faucet at PCT Mile 534.9
Day Total: 26.8 miles

We had nine mostly downhill miles this morning to Highway 138 and the hostel called Hikertown. We were hiking by 6:30 a.m. under partly cloudy skies. I've never been so excited about weather that is partly cloudy.

By 8 a.m., it was hot already and we cruised to the hostel to get out of the sun. The last half mile was a straight, flat dirt road that might as well have been an oven.

The local convenience store/cafe hilariously offers an hourly shuttle for hikers from the hostel to their store. They know that the free ride pays for itself many times over when they bring in a van load of hungry and cold-drink deprived hikers.

We took the 9 a.m. shuttle and ordered breakfast in the cafe. We sat in their air-conditioned, wifi-filled room with indoor bathrooms for six hours. By the time we left, there were hikers at each of the 10 or so tables in the cafe.

We packed up and left Hikertown a little after 7 p.m., waiting for the sun to be on its way out before the next hot, dry stretch though the western corner of the Mojave Desert. The trail followed a dusty dirt road for a mile, and then we came over a ridge and saw a massive amount of water flowing through a large canal.

It was totally unexpected and entirely shocking. It was the most water we had seen at once since leaving the Pacific in San Diego.

We followed the canal for a while until we turned onto the infamous Los Angeles Aqueduct. We followed the huge metal tube of water for about a mile and a half before it went underground. We could still hear the water rushing under the pavement, but of course there was none for us to drink.

We considered trying to use a corkscrew to poke a hole in the aqueduct, but ultimately decided against causing a thirst massacre in Los Angeles.

We followed the underground aqueduct for some 14 or so more miles, mostly in the dark.

There was a tremendous glow of lights from a city, and high up bright red dots from the wind turbines we will hike through tomorrow.

We made it to the one place to get water along this stretch – a faucet at mile 534.9 and quickly fell asleep.

We had planned to just cowboy camp, or sleep without a tent, but after seeing several scorpions we decided we'd sleep better in the security of the nylon tent walls. We'll be up early to get through the last bit of flat desert monotony.