Last night was pretty terrible. The wind picked up and kept pulling out my stakes, thus my tent collapsing on me throughout the night. I'm pretty sure I tried fixing it at least eight times. I barely slept at all. I think bc I was so tired when I pitched my tent, I just picked a random spot and it wasn't technically big enough either. It's just hard to spend time finding a good tent site when you're sooo exhausted and all you want to do is pass out.

I started packing out just as the sun was rising. Most of the morning was super windy and a little chilly. I found a good rest spot at mile 9 and laid all my stuff out to dry. I had noticed that my tan lines on my legs were really intense. I laid down to rest and then GB came over. Then Lisa and Rusty came and we ended up just doing lunch. We would hike the rest of the way to Hikertown. As we approached the area, it was so pretty. All of the grass was so yellow and the clouds were good. We saw a bunch of random junk in a field next to the trail like an old computer, chairs, pieces of cars, etc. We had no clue what this place was going to be like.

We finally saw Hikertown from the trail. There were little shacks that were labeled to what they were converted into: motel, post office, city hall, doctor's office, etc. the property was surrounded by a fence. The whole place looked deserted. We walked in and found a few hikers underneath the shade at city hall. Apparently, the place is run by Bob and he's a little weird. Each building is covered into a little room for hikers to sleep. We've heard weird rumors of hidden cameras or people feel like they're being watched if they stay the night. I was curious on how all the rumors started but everything seemed totally fine. It was probably the most chill place bc everyone has stayed away. I saw bob walk by and he seemed nice.

We ended up lounging at city hall until the evening. I tried napping but it was difficult. We filled up our waters and right before sunset, we were ready to head out to hike the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It's a 20 mile long, flat, hot and boring section so we thought we would try to night hike it and see how far we can go. L, R, GB and I headed out from Hikertown and the sky and light was gorgeous. We were so happy to be heading out and seeing such a good sunset. We reached the beginning of the aqueduct and the water there look so cool. We decided to share each other's life stories to entertain ourselves. I learned so much from everyone and it's really cool to see how they all ended up on the PCT and what they were like growing up.

It finally started to get darker where it was hard to see. I kept walking sideways and it was making me a little dizzy. Then the moon came out and faintly lit our path. Thankfully it wasn't all pavement but the dirt road is still hard on our feet. I started getting a sharp pain in my tummy and I felt like I needed to poop. I had eaten too much and then had to hike. Normally, we'll eat a big dinner and then just do bedtime. I didn't really want to stop to try to find somewhere to poop in the dark and get left behind but we made a "leave no man behind" rule. So I tried going but nothing. When I got back on trail, I think the others walked ahead just a bit but I couldn't see them. I kept walking but it was SO dark and I was a little spooked wondering if I'd ever see the others again. Totally thought a man with a black cape was going to run by in the shadows. I finally caught up with them waiting in the dark for me, I was so relieved.

Walked along the water for just a bit and started sharing our humble life stories.

We were all exhausted and so sleepy. It was finally time to sleep. I think by the time we found a spot to cowboy camp it as around 1130p. Everywhere was pretty exposed and windy so I had to just settle on some random place. There were some of those weird huge ants around me so I tried killing some with my trekking pole before bed. I still hate the bugs when cowboy camping. I immediately passed out. No blogging, nothing. Couldn't do it.