Hiker Heaven: an oasis in the desert. May 29.

Fourteen years ago Donna Saufley decided she wanted a purpose in life
and she discovered the Pacific Crest Trail running just one mile from
her and her husband, Jeff's, home. She had never hiked the trail, but
she knows exactly what hikers need at 455 miles into their odyssey,
and has hosted nearly 3500 hikers since 1996.

I arrived yesterday afternoon, went through the gate marked with a PCT
trail sign and was greeted by John Deere (note that at Hiker Heaven I
am often confused by who is hiking this year, who is a past year
volunteer, and who is just a trail angel staying at the Saufleys), who
gave me the run down.

First stop: the laundry tent. Pick out flipflops, and any combo of
clean clothes , separated in bins marked "tshirts", "long pants",
"dresses" and entire bin of "Saufleys Electric" hooded sweatshirts.
Place all dirty clothes in mesh bag, put name on sticky note and place
in garage in the laundry line. Clean clothes will reappear on front
porch in several hours.

Second stop: Grab towel and wash cloth, and head toward RV. Place name
on whiteboard shower list on RV bathroom door. (I was fifth in line)
In the interim find a cot in one of nine huge tents (the RV rooms are
reserved for couples) and throw your backpack on there. "Party" tents
are around the fire pit. Quiet tents are back by the horse corral. (I
opted for a quiet tent since the drinking and singing had already
begun. It was actually pretty quiet, apart from the fact that the
horses kept sneaking over by my tent to fart all night long.)

Food can be prepared and stored in the communal hiker kitchen in the
RV. Mark your name on your food in the fridge. (I bought two yogurts
in town and could almost not find room...someone needs to clean this
thing out and it's not going to be me.) Communal spaghetti dinner
tonite, vegan or meat.

RV living room has a TV, computer for Internet access, free wifi, and
one phone devoted to hikers to call anywhere in the world for free.
(Not surprisingly the hiker who took a whole package of fig bars from
the trail magic at Mile 252, "The couch", was hogging the phone.)

Bins outside the RV are the hiker boxes--take what you want, leave
what you don't. (These were the largest size rubbermaid bins marked
for gear, clothing, toiletries, stove parts, reusable shoes and two
for food. I was curious about finding some shampoo and peeked in one
bin. I saw about twenty travel sizes of shampoo, deoderant, bars of
soap, five tubes of Desitin--helps with chaffing, bandaids, moleskin,
floss, toothpaste, sunblock, and so on. Turns out that the bathroom
was fully stocked with shampoo, conditioner, pumice stone, bath gel,
tootpaste, body butter, qtips, razors, and a scale which said that I
have not lost or gained a single pound. The one in Pasadena said I had
gained five. I'm not sure which one to believe, but as I write this I
happen to be eating a brownie sundae...)

There are ten bikes for use to go to town (1 mile away and a pretty
fun ride on the bike) or you can place your name on a whiteboard with
where you want to go and a ride will be arranged. (Many hikers needed
to get to an REI to purchase new gear or clothes.) If you need to sew
anything, use the Singer machine on the front porch. Three extra
portapotties behind the horse corral.

I was dizzy with all the information, but happily accepted a beer from
a hiker I had never met before. Tonite we are having a catered meal,
courtesy of a past hiker's family, chilling in town for the holiday.
Let the trail lore emerge....I see a late night around the fire
pit...although I will probably be antisocial and just get a good
night's sleep.

Thanks to all of my personal trail angels for sending boxes! I'll be
fueling many hikers with tortilla chips and espresso beans over the
next 104 miles, although at this point I have not met any that I want
to hike for any extended period of time... Let the race against the
Mojave heat begin!