Saturday, May 19, 2012

Day 29 - A Zero In Hiker Heaven

Here are some pictures of Hiker Haven at the Saufley's home in Agua Dulce.
The yard has a patio area with a BBQ and a bunch of chairs, shaded by a huge tree. Off the side of that is a fire pit, surrounded by bales of hay for seating. There is a trailer set up which has a shower, TV in the living room, bedroom and a kitchen. There are several big canvas tents around the fire area with 4 cots in each. There are a few more tents further back in the yard. The garage has a couple shelves overflowing with boxes hikers have sent themselves. There is a welcome board with a info about the Haven, the town and nearby stores that the daily store run can visit. One side of the garage is devoted to outgoing mail with boxes, scale, stamps and a computer/printer for labeling boxes. Outside the garage is another tent with laundry bags and loaner clothes. At the back of the yard, near a horse corral, are a dozen bikes hikers can use to ride the mile into town to the store or restaurants. I probably missed a bunch more, the place has everything you could need to relax and regroup. They even had a fuel canister for my stove for sale, saving me a trip to the store.

I took a zero day on Friday, sleeping in to a very late 6:30. I bought my food that morning, sorted through my gear to try to find stuff to send home and lighten my load. I didn't find much, a couple books and a shirt. I hadn't read a single page from my book yet, always too tired to read at night and never felt like digging it out of my pack during the day breaks. It's the first book in a long series and i'd already downloaded the next several in the series as audio books. I gave up on trying to read it, sent it home and downloaded it instead.

Later that day I called a friend who lives in LA. We'd been planning to meet up for a while and Agua Dulce was closest to where he lives. He came and picked me up and we met another friend for dinner. They also gave me a quick tour of Hollywood, then finished off the evening with frozen yogurt. It was great to have the chance to hang out with them and get off the trail for a while.

2 comments:

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  2. Wow, what an awesome place! I see why it is called Hiker's Haven. They provide about everything a hiker would need. So that's where you sent the box from. "Zero day" - sounds like a great idea. Glad you got to see friends in LA.

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