Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Today was a rest/resupply day in Mojave. Wikipedia tells us ‘The town of Mojave began in 1876 as a construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was the western terminus of the 165-mile (266 km), twenty-mule team borax wagon route originating at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. It later served as headquarters for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.’ Cool. 

Why did I choose Mojave instead of nearby Tehachapi? A comment in Yogi’s guidebook says ‘Both Mojave and Tehachapi are fairly awful. Mojave is less awful’. Most hikers must choose to go to Tehachapi instead, since Mojave doesn’t give the impression of a town that processes high numbers of PCT hikers – there are no fuel canisters for purchase and both the hotel and post office workers failed to identify me as a hiker even though I was wearing my backpack (‘you can park your car over there’). Or maybe the people here are just cool and non-judgy. Sure I’m wearing a backpack and haven’t washed my hair in a week, but I could be a supermodel. I could be wearing a designer swimsuit beneath these not-daisy-fresh clothes. The post office did have a hiker logbook and another hiker had signed the same day, so they do get some traffic.

Personally, I like Mojave’s vibe. Look at this store. Only a store with character would creepily encircle its property with mannequins! I challenge Louis Vuitton to have so much character!