Posted by 14.1 miles
Hiking today was as routine as it gets. Hike 14 miles on dirt roads into Pie Town. It was fast and easy reaching town by around 10:30 am.
The whole crew at Davilla Ranch last night all left together in the early morning with the only aim of reaching Pie Town by 2pm, the closing time for the Gathering Place eatery where most of us had resupply boxes send to, waiting to be collected. In tow we had Trousers, Pritch, Christina, X-Ray and myself.
I love the small bubbles of people that form around me on trips like this. The friendships forged through the same trail adversities and shared experiences. A chocolate bar dropped in the dirt; the lack of water; stinky clothes; aching feet and baking sun.
Meeting people through travels such as this reminds me of the lyrics of one of my favourite modern Aussie punk bands, the Cable Ties, from their song Wasted Time:
“Another hundred miles
Another gracing smile
Transitory friend
Some good
Some to an end”
People come and go from your life on trails with different hiking paces, different rest days and different side quests. Some will remain a constant who you will see on and off from start to finish. We all know and respect it for what it is. Never saying goodbye but something more like “see you down the trail.” And it is because people drop in and out of your live that conversations are genuine from the get go. Hiking long miles no topic is off limits and people share their genuine beliefs without holding back. I think this is great.
We arrived into Pie Town in good time taking the opportunity to visit the famous Toaster House. Back in it’s day when the owner Nita Larronde was alive this was the place for hikers to stay when passing through Pie Town and the place to send your resupply boxes too. It is named the Toaster House after the hundreds of toasters that used to be displayed on the fence.
Nita raised her children in the Toaster House so its a family home or used to be. With an empty nest, Nita noticed CDT hikers travelling past her fence and enquired what they were doing. This began a long relationship between Nita and CDT hikers as she started to open up her house as a rest stop in 1982 until her death in 2023. For years this was the place to come to in Pie Town to rest, regroup, get cleaned up and socialise.
In her will Nita left the Toaster House to the CDT hiking community as an open door rest stop but like all good things without an owner, it has become a bit of the tragedy of the commons situation. Hikers can still stay there on a donation basis but with no regular clean up or maintenance the place is in decline. Hikers still do come to stay but leave their non wanted food in the hiker box. This has all sorts of random foods in it and it not routinely cleaned out. The smell if mice is on the nose. The bathrooms are dirty and bed sheets are not cleaned. Recently it has had a reputation for attracting non hiking squatters as word got around of this open house.
Anyway, it was worth a visit but the whole crew are staying in a brand new establishment 1/2 mile away called the Bunkhouse. This is under management and has all that we need, although they are still developing it.
Before heading to the bunk house there was food to eat and resupply boxes to collect. The Gathering Place II was the place of choice. I made quick work of a burger.
Picking up my resupply box it was clear that I have again over estimated how long I thought it would take between resupply locations and have send myself far too much food.
Talking earlier of transitory friends, late in the afternoon while we were all settled at the Bunkhouse in walked Chowdah. This guys is amazing. At 75 years young he is an example I absolutely admire. If I can still be doing this long distance hiking game at 75 years old like him I will be a very happy man. Hulk who I met yesterday coined the term OTA for the group I’m currently with, “Older Than Average”.
Mick Beckers 