There’s a Hiker Oasis in the Desert

This morning we got up around 8-8:30am and began packing up in the room at the Toaster House. Then sometime after nine we realized that the post office closes on Saturdays at 9:30am. Sparkle and I had both picked up resupply boxes yesterday and realized we didn’t need them. There was so much stuff in the hiker box at the toaster house, and I still had a lot of food because we did this last section faster than we assumed we would.

Inside the Toaster House.

Signing the log book at the Toaster House before hiking out.

Yee-haw, James, Sparkle, and myself.

Luckily, if you pick up a resupply box and don’t open it, you can still return it to the post office and bounce it to a different post office. So that’s exactly what we did. We almost missed the post by about five minutes. But got there just in time. The lady was really nice and she bounced all of our boxes up ahead to the next town. Then we grabbed some breakfast at the café across the street before walking out of town.

The Gatherin Place in Pie Town.

Some of the many hikers that we got to see in town! Left to right: Sparkle, Syrup, Yee-haw, Triple T, myself, Corn, Peanut Gallery, Lip Balm, and James. 

The morning was prettiest slow going, but eventually we got walking. Then it was going to be all road walk for most of the day. Fortunately, we were only along a busy road for a little while. Then we were on nice dirt roads for the remainder.

Sparkle being silly.

We walked for a couple of hours before stopping off a break. But we knew that there was a place called Devilla Ranch, which we were excited to get to. It was 15 miles into our day and is basically a big shed out in the desert. Some of it is partially enclosed, but it isn’t fully enclosed. There is a shower, toilet, two burner stove, sink, refrigerator, and charging ports. It’s basically a hiker oasis in the desert. And a lot of hikers decide to camp there for the night because of all of the amenities.

The Davila Ranch.

After our break, we pushed on for another couple of hours to get to the ranch. And when we arrived, there were a bunch of other hikers there hanging out. Syrup was there too because he had left town a little bit before us. We decided to break there and briefly charge our phones. Sparkle also made me some eggs on the stove with butter, which were so good.

The sign on trail for the ranch. We almost walked right by without seeing it.

I could see why people decide to camp at this location. It’s really cool and would at least protect you from the wind a little bit. Even though it’s still dirt floor and not enclosed 360 degrees.

But it was still really early in the day, so we decided to keep it moving. Our plan was to go about 10 more miles for the day before setting up camp. We walked for a couple of hours and then the sun began to set. The sunset was beautiful as always in the desert. Then we began hiking into the dark.

We came to our last water source well after dark and stopped to fill up. This would be our last water source for the night and we were going to be dry camping tonight. So we had to bring enough water for tonight and for tomorrow morning until we would come to the next water source. We passed by Peanut Gallery and Lip Balm’s tent right before the water source. I met them for the first time in glacier and then saw them again in Cuba. It’s funny how things work out.

Sparkle and James walking along the road as the sun set.

After we got our water we continued on and planned to go another couple of miles for the night. After a mile or two, we walked past Syrup’s tent and decided to camp nearby him. At least that way we could all be hiking together tomorrow. We did go a little bit further down the trail past him, just so we didn’t wake him up by setting up our tents. But we were close enough that he would hear us breaking down in the morning.

Once my tent was set up, I boiled some water to have hot chocolate. That’s definitely one of my favorite things to enjoy at camp in my tent. Then I did my stretching routine and a little bit of writing before calling it a night.