Silent Disco – The Trek

Hiker city

Day 35

What a place. Surprisingly, we couldn’t find much information about what exactly to expect today. Perhaps because the experience can be very varied. We only had 3 miles to walk this morning. I had my usual coffee and oatmeal and we arrived bright and early to the hiker town.

Hiker Town is a kind of simple paradise for hikers. There are container buildings with wooden facades painted to look like an old Western city. There’s a bathroom, a shower that appears to be unused, a camping area with a large charging station surrounded by vaporizers, some dogs, some chickens, and if you’re lucky, the owner Richard.

Richard was on his monthly hiker’s visit to the city when we arrived. He showed up and gave Straight Up the keys to his truck with us piled in. Bug and I were lying in the bed of the truck. Fortunately, Straight Up is a great driver.

We arrived at Neenach Market, a gas station type stop without any gas, as some unfortunate drivers passing through the area learned. The market is flooded with day trippers. They serve hot food and cold drinks and have enough snacks and things to refuel a little. They also have a shower that seems to be the preferred place to shower and are working on offering laundry and other services for hikers.

We grabbed some lunch, resupplied, headed back to the hiking town and prepared for the infamous Los Angeles Aqueduct night hike.

The Los Angeles Aqueduct

Day 35-36

There are probably 30 to 40 people in town of hikers getting ready to walk the aqueduct at night. People have different strategies when night comes. Some come out in the evening to walk, sleep, and then walk some more. Some wait until 2 a.m. and then walk all night. Some are doing their own thing outside of any of the plans. My small group of 4 is going with option A: leave around 6 pm, walk as much as we can, get some sleep, and then keep walking.

We adorn ourselves with glow sticks, glow-in-the-dark tattoos, glowing body paint, and other fun lights to take on the next leg. We didn’t have a certain mileage planned, we just wanted to go as far as possible. Dusk was approaching so we set off.

The Aqueduct is another great landmark of the PCT. It is considered a 20 mile stretch of hot, flat and exposed hiking. If done in the middle of the day, the desert heat can be brutal. There is a 17 mile stretch without shade or water. To combat this, hikers often hike these miles at night. My first night walk!

We walked on the aqueduct as the sun set. The entire landscape was dyed a golden yellow. There were goats grazing, dogs barking, and chickens clucking from the adjacent properties at every hiker passing by. We felt like we were in a Super Mario video game, overcoming little challenges along the way. We climbed over an elevated maintenance access road and dodged foot-numbing pipe bolts. Challenge 1, complete.

The pipe ended and the trail turned right toward a flat concrete pipe with water gushing out of it. By this time the sun had completely set and we walked illuminated only by the glow of our glow sticks. We started a Spotify Jam session where we each logged in from our phones and queued up music to listen to simultaneously. We had a silent disco with pop-house music, which turned into techno and then went down to some indie rock to end the night. We would take breaks to rest our feet and look at the stars. I was able to see the Milky Way, Jupiter, the Big Dipper, and seemingly all the stars around it. So. A lot. Fun.

After about 20 miles of long, silent disco stomping, we reached the next water source. Most of the groups that had walked at night pitched their tents in a series of gullies and along the bush. We set up our sleeping pads in a small formation of sardine cans behind some bushes to provide a little break from the wind and fell asleep like camping cowboys amidst the glow of stars and the sound of rustling leaves.

The wind farm

Day 36

Waking up with the sun is always the best start to the day. Since we were marching all night, I had no idea what scene we would wake up to. I looked up and saw giant windmills and the warmth of the golden hills coming to life again. I slept about 2 hours and 45 minutes according to my watch. It was going to be an interesting day.

We’ll be straight off the trail for a couple of days, so we say a quick goodbye before walking out into the increasing heat. A couple miles later, he texted us asking if we wanted iced coffee. It stopped where the trail crossed a dirt road with frozen Dunkin’ Donuts and we said goodbye again.

There were a series of stretches of about 8 miles between water sources for the rest of the day. On a hot and fairly exposed day that consisted of 13 miles uphill followed by 11 miles downhill, I was drinking a ton of water. Besides having slept less than 3 hours, I was a little groggy. The city was motivating me to keep going. The only thing I could think about all day was the chipotle burrito bowl that awaited me at the end of this hike.

Rascal, Jug and I stayed with a tracker angel, Barbara, in Tehachapi. She is a sweet lady who used to own a restaurant and apple orchard in town, but has been hosting day trippers at her old horse stable for the past 5 years. As soon as we walked in, I dropped my bag and went to the shower. I’m sleeping in the attic of the barn on a folding mat. There may be a mouse up here, but I know I’m going to sleep soundly anyway.

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