Monday, April 22, 2019 – 6 miles

I completed the last six miles to Highway 138 and the end of Section C. The scenery included power lines and roads, but also impressive views of the San Andreas Rift Zone and a pretty walk along Crowder Creek.

The trail met with Highway 138 at a truck maintenance area. A wooden sign indicated the way forwards and also the way to the famous almost-on-trail McDonalds.

I don’t normally eat McDonalds but I occasionally do on the trail, and definitely had to eat at the famous almost-on-trail McDonalds. The sign stated that it was 0.4 miles away, but it didn’t feel that far. Only one other hiker was there when I arrived. I didn’t know her, but she was friendly and we sat together, later to be joined by another hiker named Thor. I’ve never seen anyone eat as quickly as the female hiker. The food was engulfed into her skinny body to disappear into the black hole apparently contained within her gut.

The other customers at the restaurant were curious (about our hiking, not the engulfing) and a few came over to our table to talk. One said that he preferred ramen to dehydrated meals because dehydrated meals all taste the same after awhile. Oh my gosh, a dehydrated meal is a huge treat for me, so long as it doesn’t involve picking 80 packets out from powder. If anyone has some dehydrated meals that you want to trade for ramen…

So my plan was to hitchhike to Mojave. When looking at the map previously, I had decided on a route that I thought was a hitch of two roads passing through Kramer Junction, but upon looking again I saw that it was actually three roads and one might not have much traffic. I decided to try a second route cutting through Palmdale and Lancaster instead – hitching through cities/larger towns can be a big nuisance but at least it’s a nuisance with traffic.

I started NOBO on the PCT towards a potential hitchhiking spot that turned out to be absolute trash. I wouldn’t pull over for me there. After waiting hopelessly for awhile, I decided to use Uber to get to the nearest public transit. During the ride, I saw another spot that might have worked for hitching, though it was far from the PCT. Maybe I’ll try walking there next time.

Without incident I caught the bus to Mojave, which is an ugly town. I kind of like that though, it’s all like ‘why SHOULD I wear makeup?’. I did laundry and bought food at the Vons across from the Motel 6.