PCT Day 23-34

I met a dog! This is from my most recent day in the town of Tehachapi. It is a small town north of L.A. surrounded by a wind farm. I will admit that getting into this town was one of my most frustrating days on trail. I was constantly bombarded by winds of 30-50 mph and felt like I was making no progress. By the end of the day, I was so tired I was in my sleeping bag before 6 pm. The time spent in town made it worth it. We got an all you can eat Chinese buffet, some fantastic craft beer, and more importantly, I got to ship home some items I didn't need, making my pack even lighter!

We were literally in the wind farm!

In the last town I was in, Hikertown, I traded manual labor for food! There are some trail angels who graciously host hikers on their property, give them food and shuttle them to the store for free. However, after waking up one morning one of them asked for some help doing chores. My friends and I volunteered and ended up with quite a task. The property owner asked if we could put together some lamps for a new hiker lounge he was making. After all the support he provided we happily said yes. We finished putting together the lamps and then he said he had some painting he needed done. He wanted us to paint the outside of the hiker lounge. We suited up in coveralls and spent the entire morning painting!

In exchange for the work we did, Richard grilled us hot dogs and carne asada, ice cream and offered us free showers. Thank you Richard! ( Richard was quite the character! He was one of the first IMAX camera operators, helped develop EPCOT in Disney world, and was the mayor of Neenach.)

That's all for now! Here are some more photos to enjoy.

-Pickle