May 20

504-534

After waking and packing up, our day starts in a shockingly verdant valley between arid ridges. We are right on the edge of the Mojave desert, which makes the greenery seem all the more special. Oak trees abound on this area, since they are especially drought resistant.

We notice that the undergrowth around the trail is covered in Miner’s lettuce, so named because gold miners ate it to avoid scurvy while living off preserved food.

We leave the comfort of the protected valley and get our first close up View of the Mojave desert, which we will traverse this evening.

We take a maddeningly circular route, descending through the hills surrounding the Mojave while making little forward progress. The trail takes us up every little hill possible. The only thing that keeps us sane is seeing all the flowering shrubs in bloom

Soon, we reach the desert floor and the trail takes us by a long standing PCT Hiker stop- Hikertown.

Hikertown is a strange little outpost right on the edge of the Mojave desert that offers water, shade, and the ability to rent out tiny western themed cabins that reportedly are teeming with mice and bed bugs.

This place has always been a bit of a strange stop. It is reportedly owned by a producer of pornographic films, who in previous years would play some of his films on a projector screen- making generations of hikers quite uncomfortable.

The proprietor now has a live in girlfriend, who is quite friendly and has changed the atmosphere of this place immeasurably. We arrive at noon, refill our water bottles, charge our phones, and wait out the heat of the day. It was a nice stop, and we are very thankful for the water and services provided. At around 4pm we embark on our traverse of the Mojave.

For 20 miles the PCT walks along the LA aqueduct- a 233 mile, gravity fed water pipeline that transports water from the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada all the way to thirsty Los Angeles. The construction of the pipeline was very controversial as it effectively ended the agricultural potential of the previously fertile Owens Valley. A series of backroom deals and deceptive tactics allowed wealthy Los Angeles businessman to obtain water rights from the Owens Valley and they soon begin diverting water to their growing metropolis. Lakes began shrinking, wells ran dry and previously fertile fields were unable to grow crops. This sparked outrage from local farmers, who began sabotaging the aqueduct. Their efforts were in vain, and the water continues to flow to this day in massive quantities. At some points the aqueduct opens up, and you can get a better sense of how much water is flowing through the area.

For most of it though, the aqueduct remains closed. It is a little funny thinking about the river of water beneath our feat as we are lugging liters of water through the Mojave- being careful to ration our limited supply.

To beat the heat, we decide to hike well into the night. We hike off and on with a couple of software engineers- Ben and Sarah- from Colorado. Their company and conversation help the miles roll by. Next to the trail is the largest Joshua tree we have seen so far- a tree endemic and exclusive to the Mojave.

After sunset we find ourself walking through a massive wind farm. A full moon allows us to walk without headlamps, which is nice, but Amber struggles to stay upright as we are pummeled by relentless wind. We soon realized that finding a campsite may prove to be very difficult, and that the idea of setting up our shelter would be a fools errand.

Eventually we come across some piece of concrete infrastructure of the wind farm and hope that if we wedge ourselves next to it, we can avoid wind from at least one direction. I sleep wedged next to the structure, on a metal walkway above a 30 foot drop into a creek bed. It is a very stupid campsite, but after 30 miles of hiking we are wiped out and not in the mood to continue searching.

The structure does little to brunt the force of the winds. Multiple times during the night my sleeping bag is pulled off my body from strong gusts and I have to clutch onto it as I sleep. A rat chews through my food bag and takes bites out of half of my food items. We get little sleep, but need to wake up early to finish traversing the Mojave before the heat of the day.