Day 27

Day: 27

Date: 05 May 2018 12:49AM PDT

Location: Camping near mile 531.3

Today's Miles: 24.3

Total Miles: 531.3

Up with the sun, out around 0715.

Overall downhill this morning into Hikertown. A bit of a roller coaster as the trail made its way down into the desert, but nothing too substantial.

Ten miles into the day I arrived at a... very odd, but welcoming place. The best way to describe it is that retired guy owns a bunch of land and a gas station, used to be in the movie business, and sometimes his property gets used in movies.

The entire place is styled in an old west themed movie, with tiny buildings representing each of the establishments you'd expect to see in such a town. Post office, saloon, etc.

As I walked onto the property I was greeted by a garage full of hikers who were avoiding the sun. Shortly thereafter the owner showed up and shuttled the new arrivals to the convenience store and Mexican cafe down the street.

Grabbed a drink and a burrito, ate with some other hikers I've bumped into previously. After we were shuttled back we all sat around waiting for the temperature to lessen, chatting about the trail and what's to come.

Hung about later than I expected, even took one final trip back to the store for something cold to drink.

Walked off into the sunset to tackle the "dreaded" aqueduct portion in the evening. Walking was fine, desert was beautiful.

Upon finding a tent spot for the night, things fell apart pretty rapidly. Zippers on my tent stopped working properly, and it took me about an hour to figure out how to make them zip, even if only temporarily for the night. Then I started having problems with my new, recently replaced, air mattress.

Ended up being awake way longer than I'd like, but what can you do. No alarm for tomorrow, although I have a feeling my deflating air mattress will be keeping me from getting much sleep.