Tehachapi. Mile 566

 Hello all you virtual hikers,

    We're finally at a place that DG at least recognizes by name. She and TC have driven highway 58 numerous times and driven by Tehachapi but never actually checked out the town. DG has always wanted to. The draw, written on the first sign you see is, "A Land of Four Seasoms". Coming from a city of that nature DG is nostalgic for it. It's in the mountains ( 4,500 ft) and the weather has always been dramatic when they have driven through ( windy, blizzardly, foggy, cold). We all know how DG is attracted to drama. Being born and bred in a country of heinous weather (Scotland) it feels like home.

Santa Cruz, apart from a storm or two is too perfect to produce anything too hardy. Perhaps she should go and live in the White Mountains in California ( on the East side of the Sierra) where the hardiest tree, the oldest living plant on the planet lives - the bristlecone pine. It thrives on adverse conditions. Dirty Girl is beginning to look like one of those trees. Her skin looks like bark and the withering process is in full effect. 

      Yesterday we were picked up by a pseudo trail angel. He had been picking up hikers and driving them the 8 miles to town. Someone gave him $ which is not unusual but by the time he picked us up he had fashioned an idea. In the space of a few hours he decided," I don't want money I'll just get those strong energetic hikers to work for me". He picked up our group and there were three other hikers going back on the trail. He had brought a garbage bag to empty out the trash bin which he promptly handed off to Topo and Sugar Pine. They lifted the grodiest bin and dumped. He had brought wAter which everyone else unloaded while he deployed instructions. Fair enough. DG took the garbage bag and started picking up all the litter in the area which consisted of a lot of shitty toilet paper and bottles filled with vile liquid. Fair enough. Everyone comes back to his car and DG had missed out on a previous conversation. This guy wanted us to fill buckets with gravel (decomposed granite) from the side of a road just a mile or two down the road. He'd drive us and of course the buckets and a shovel were already in the car. DG fumed inwardly. This was extortion. She has never used this word before and is exactly sure of its meaning but as she sat on the wet stinking floor of the snotty car with her hand holding the fermenting trash that's the word that came up. 

   Dear readers, do not think PCT hikers ungrateful or entitled. They would do anything for a trail angel who was really a trail angel but this old fart was different. Money is all most PCT hikers can give. By the time they are being picked up they are tired, dirty, hungry, stinky and not glowing. To be asked to shovel gravel  (illegally at that ) at the end of their day is a bit much. The reason trail angels are so loved by hikers is that they give freely and without expectation. That kind of giving is transformational for everyone. That kind of giving changes hearts and lives) In his defense he was a bandana-wearing, pony-tailed, 60 something Oregonian transplant who probably grew up in more of a "trade" culture but you can't be asking hikers with swollen blistered feet and stress fractures who have been walking in the Mojave desert to shovel gravel for you in exchange for an 8 mile car drive.

      Back in the car: The threesome are deposited by the side of the road. DG in her indignant fury takes the shovel and starts throwing in gravel. The others are instructed to use their hands to pull the gravel into the bucket. DG receives the same instructions but points out to the extortioner that she has a shovel. She does not need dirt shoveling instructions. The shoveling takes less than 2 minutes to complete. Buckets loaded they are back in the  car. There is some discussion about what has transpired. The pseudo trail angel asks if we think what he is doing is OK. He thinks asking for labor (a couple of hours) would be better than taking money. DG says she would rather give money. She also adds that this is the first time anyone has asked for this kind of help. No one else (TC and Hog are with her) says much. DG says she is not sure it's a good idea. Hog says people can say no. NOT!!! Who's going to say no in this situation? It is human kindness along with fear, anger, and indignation to say yes. Maybe there is some cowardness in there to. Some false sucking up and manipulation just to get a ride. In retrospect DG is happy the guy got his buckets filled. She doesn't appreciate the manipulative slant. Ordinarily she would have landscaped his entire garden for him. He jokingly said he was going to take us to his house to unload and spread the gravel. We know that's what he wanted and for a moment DG thought she was being kidnapped to a labor camp.

     He dropped the ungrateful mob at the Best Western and asked if they wanted a lift to the trailhead tomorrow. Hog said yes and was offering to do something for the guy. DG, TC and Topo said "No thank you".

TC feeling more like a stinky camper!

Check in at Best Western. 

Pool party.