All week leading up to the infamous Mojave Night Hike, Teatime had been telling everyone he crossed his path to meet at Hiker Town for a Friday night caravan. Teatime had received a whole package of glow sticks, light-up toys, and glowing dark body paint sent to Hiker Town. In short, Friday night was highly anticipated.
An inside joke
A cold wave
Getting to the Los Angeles Aqueduct was another matter. The trail goes up and down, up and down, up and down. As the trail crosses ridge after ridge. The trail heads into lush sea valleys and then back into desert valleys, and repeats.
A polar vortex was also blowing, bringing with it a lot of wind and cold air. The night after Agua Dulce was cold in the mountains. It didn’t help that there were few campsites protected from the wind and many places exposed to the wind. Luckily, I am relatively fast and finish my days early, so there is no problem getting a place. But I went out with friends who crammed 4 tents into a 2-tent area.
horse chestnut
The best smokehouse on the road
After walking a few miles in the pleasant morning air, all under complete cloud cover, I was thirsty. We arrived at a fire station with an outside spigot that hikers use to draw water. The road next to the fire station led to the small town of Green Valley. “City” is an exaggeration: it was a gas station, a steakhouse a mile from the gas station, and houses in between.
Since the weather was so cold, we praised the sun’s rays coming through small gaps in the clouds as we hitchhiked into the city. They dropped us off at the gas station which was full of expensive hiker food. But we continued, walking a mile to the supposedly best smokehouse on the road.
They had these craft root beers that were really good.
The place opened right when we arrived. There were still extra provisions on the tables from the small town restaurant from the night before. We were the only customers in the store during lunch, but OMG, the smoked chicken with rice hit the spot. We left happy to have completed the secondary mission.
Back to the winds
We continued in the afternoon and the weather did not improve much. After spelunking in some small caves just off the trail, I joined the group for some word games as we tried to get to a campsite.
It wasn’t much of a windbreak, but the rain would be coming soon. After setting up the tent, I sat in the first drizzle to prepare dinner while everyone fled to their tents. I refused to go to bed without a proper meal. I didn’t pay much for it.
Enough space to get up and walk around in the small cave.
Another wet and cloudy day
I woke up to a wet tent and many other wet items. The rain was not heavy, but the wind carried it everywhere. The cloud around us kept us from drying out, so I packed up and moved on before anyone came out of their tents.
Besides the cold and wind, the day was fantastic: good views of the Mojave National Forest and Angeles. I dried my gear during lunchtime, ate 900 calories of a Mexican brand of graham crackers. There aren’t many options in Agua Dulce. For the first time, water is filtered from a drinking fountain, an interesting piece of infrastructure that is a drinking fountain.
«Come, come, khajiit has goods if you have coins»
I continued to the small creek camp that was the original plan, and I knew that no one else from the Apostles would get there. However, I met Landshark, who Teatime had already sold on a hike through the Mojave on Friday night. It helped that Friday was also the next day.
I’m glad I came, I’m glad I didn’t stay.
The next day, I quickly arrived at Hiker Town: a small group of sheds decorated like an old western town. Between the lack of people in charge, the hornets in the shower, and the general deterioration, the «city» was not a place I wanted to hang out after dark. Even the guy who was there to shoot a movie about the place agreed that “it sure is interesting.”
Fortunately, Hiker Town is a starting point for the traditional overnight hike through the Mojave, following the Los Angeles County Aqueduct. Since we were at the end of the polar vortex, a night hike wasn’t necessary, but it was also traditional, so we did it anyway.
A really good burger
The owner of Hiker Town gave us the keys to his spare truck so we could go get a burger at the local restaurant/old gas station. It was intriguing to see person after person walk in, first confused as to why there were so many more people in this hole.recessed gas station than vehicles on the outside. And then the fact that there was no gasoline at the pumps for miles around.
Despite all this, that old gas station had one of the best burgers I ever had. Very good, I ordered a second half way through the first. It also had fries, a pumpkin pie, and some soda to go with it. It was full at the end of lunch.
View of the Mojave Crossing
Get ready for a long night
After driving back to Hiker Town, we set about doing what we could to get ready for the night. Some took naps, others did housework. Most of the time I was left trying to get a charge of fire hazard out of an outlet. I filled fire hose water from an outside faucet and filtered it just to be safe.
Once Teatime received their package, people started painting their faces, putting up glow sticks, and adding all the fun things they could. A collage of various people’s preferences was drawn up into a playlist and shuffled. TJ became the speaker and they put him in his bag. After a few photos and a lot of delay, we were on our way.
«Do I carry a gun? Of course.» The weapon in question.
The aqueduct pirates
We left Hiker Town in a conga line to the tune of «Life Is a Highway.» I was pushed to the front because I am perceived as someone who always knows where I am going. After walking backwards along a dead-end road, we reached the blue seas of the aqueduct.
The blue would quickly fade to rusty steel as we walked single file along the aqueduct. We got some trail magic from a local whose property borders the aqueduct, and some petting from his St. Bernard puppies. But even the rusted steel faded into the white concrete as we moved into the night.
Our faithful companions
The sun fades
And still we walked until late into the night. With the full moon lighting the way down a large dirt road, it was easy. In fact, there was so much moonlight that there were shadows. It was harder not to stray off a side road than it was to see the main road.
The group fractured and came back together a couple of times. The music stopped playing, largely because people started queuing up their own songs, which were all basic club music that sounded exactly the same after the first hour. It was at this point that my social battery not only died but broke.
Me, the moon and the wind
So I continued on, past the group, and into the dark night. Goodbye Irish. I needed space, I just felt tired with the crew. I put on some music, but ultimately I just listened to the night.
The wind whipped across the desert plain. I find walking alone in silence very therapeutic. By the time I crashed at 2 a.m. next to the mountain stream that marked the end of the Mojave hike, I had calmed down. Having thought deeply about why I suddenly found myself angry at people I had considered friends hours before. It was just that my social battery was deeply drained.
Oh, and I can’t forget that the windmills were there too.
1 sheep, 2 sheep, 30 sheep
I woke up the next morning with a «baaaa.» There was a flock of sheep surrounding me. As I sat down I started a small stampede as the sheep jumped to the other side of the stream. Luckily, there are no sheepdogs left unattended, as I feared. That’s the only animal I’m really afraid of encountering here.
I got up and walked to get to Nero’s place for Tehachapi. The day was no longer cool, but the umbrella today was great: no weeds and little wind for the heat of the day. I sat on a rock for lunch and got stung by fire ants.
A city of windmills
Otherwise, the windmills were an interesting sight. All different models and matrices. I definitely don’t want this view all the time, but I can appreciate it now. I found the only campsite where there was no wind and was stopped by two trains on my way to Highway 58.
Well, I have a massage behind McDonalds to try, so I’ll leave it here.
