PCT 2023 - Day 35 - Night Hiking!

The one with the scary drug deal, glow sticks and windmills.

📍 Location: Hiker Town (517.6) to MM 533.7

🥾 I actually walked: 18.2 miles (16 on trail)
💰 Money: $14 for loaded fries and a drink from the market.
⛑️ Health: My Achilles are still sore (right more than left). Todays walk is flat so I should be fine. 🤞

☀️ Weather: As we set off at 5pm it was still 29 degrees!

🍲 Food: Breakfast bar, loaded fries with chicken and cheese, then Mac & cheese with pulled pork for dinner.

💤 Sleep: I slept well again last night in the little cabin.

😃 People update: Bloom walked into Hiker Town this morning. She has already walked 10 miles but then hiked out with us tonight. That made a 27 mile day for her. Go Bloom!!

THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-

Today is a bit different as we hiked out at 5pm. We have a long flat walk of 12 miles, then 4 miles uphill to do, in a very exposed area. Many people walk this section at night to miss the heat of the day. This is going to be a very different experience. Hiking with Miles, his mum, Disco and Bloom.

🎒 5 pm and we are off! It feels so good to be back out on the trail even if my rucksack feels super heavy with 3.5 litres of water and three days of food.

🌸 5:20 pm We walk through a huge field of yellow flowers (they look like big buttercups) and then turn right when we reach the aqueduct. I’m soon to learn that the PCT follows the LA aqueduct for a long while, but it’s in different styles. Section A is a beautiful open river style which we follow for about a mile. The river then goes underground and suddenly we are walking on top of a humongous pipe, section B (now this was fun!). The pipe then heads further underground and we walked on a paved road that had big blocks of concrete every half a mile or so, section C. You can hear the water below.

🎤 610pm - We had heard the sad news of Tina Turner passing so Disco Daddy had downloaded her greatest hits and we sang Tina tunes through section A. We slaughtered Simply the Best! 😂

🌅 7:15 pm - It’s still warm and the sun is going down slowly. It’s just beautiful and I question why Ive not really completed much night hiking before now?

🪦 730 pm - We are now in section C and written into the concrete are the words “Terry Williams” DiscoDaddy tells us that Terry was a famous mafia dude who was shot twice and buried somewhere in the Californian desert. “See the arrow?, that must be where is body is buried” he laughed! I think the sun has gone to his head!! I still have no idea who Terry Williams is.

🐮 7.50pm - We are still singing to Tina Turner and a herd of cows is to our left. As we bellow the words “What’s love got to do with it” a cow starts mooing very loudly and we roll about in giggles. We’ve been joined by two French people who are wearing bright orange jumpers. We have suggested the name (Tango duo). They are a bit young to remember the TV advert so I show them on YouTube. We call them “The Tangos” as we continue to leapfrog them during the night.

🎄 837 pm - It’s now dusk so we stop in the middle of the road and in true Disco form, out come the glow sticks! All three of us are now lit up like Christmas Trees and this gives us a real pep in our step. I put “Now that’s what I call 80’s” on loud speaker and the three of us dance up the road to Queen “I want to break free”.

🛻 9.10pm - There is some sort of mobile home park up ahead but there is not one single light on, which is weird. As we approach the park I instinctively turn off the 80’s music. We all get a weird vibe from this place as it’s dark and eeery. There are a mix of caravans and RV’s all over the place. We conclude that it’s deserted. There are no dogs or humans around at all. The mood is now a little more somber as we continue to trudge along the road (still lit up by glow sticks!).

🚗 9.20 pm - In the distance we see a car which seems to be stationary and it’s headlights beaming bright. Disco is a bit ahead now and I’m walking with Bloom. “I think that car is on a different road. But if it’s on this road then I don’t like it! I don’t like it at all”. I said to Bloom. She nodded and we agree to stick together. The road makes a turn and now it’s obvious that we will be walking right by the car which is probably about half a mile away. As we walk we are speculating who on earth would be out in the middle of nowhere, parked smack bang in the centre of the road with their full beam on? We shout at Disco to slow down (he waits for us). This is best attacked in numbers! We pass two people who have pitched up on the right. I’m not sure if they are “The Tangos” or not? The car is now getting closer and Bloom and I pick up our pace to keep up with Disco. I get my phone out and record the approach. You can hear how nervous I am when you watch the video. By now we’ve decided that some sort of night drug deal is going on and we are just going to walk by and keep our heads down. We agree no eye contact and keep our walking poles in a good position for protection. We are ready for a fight! Three walking Christmas trees! 😂

🔦 9.40 pm - We are now being blinded by the headlights and can’t see a thing (this is a smart tactic by the drugs people!). As we approach my breathing is getting heavier. We then see The Tangos at the rear of the car and I’m super confused. “Trail Magic” says a very jolly man. “Would you like some pizza and a coke?”. OMG! The guys name was Mr President and he’s an absolute legend. What a thoughtful thing to do, even if he did scare us to death at first! We stayed around and chatted for a while and ate pizza and drank coke. Life is great right now! 🍕

12.15pm - As the night wore on we started to get tired and ended up pitching a mile before our end goal. Disco found us a great tent spot which was out of the wind.

Pitching in the dark, underneath a giant windmill, was challenging but fun. I’ll find out if I’ve pitched on an ants nest in the morning.

What a great night!

Thanks for listening to my rambles.

Signing off.

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