[pct-l] Mile 518.4 - Hikertown

[yogihikes at sbcglobal.net (yogi)]

Yep, you're right.  I do not say very much about
Hikertown in my book.  Basically, I simply mention
that it exists.

There is some uncomfortable history regarding Richard
Skaggs' Hikertown.  Unfortunately, when he purchased
the property after Jack Fair's death, Skaggs was
unaware of the PCT and the stream of hikers who would
stop by his place.  Cupcake and I arrived at the
property in 2002 when Skaggs was just arriving.  He
had just finished taking down the hundreds of signs
which had been nailed to the sides of Jack Fair's
house.  Skaggs let us get water, and even gave us
oranges.

In 2003, when I arrived at Skaggs' place, he had
decided to build a "hikertown".  But it was the hikers
who were required to do the menial labor.  For
example, for every hour you wanted to sit in the
shade, you had to do 20 minutes of work in the
110-degree heat.  You want to stay for 3 hours?  That
means one hour of work.  Some might say this is fair,
and that hikers shouldn't expect something for
nothing.  But Skaggs' own construction workers didn't
begin working until the sun went down.

We were offered showers, then Skaggs "teased" that
there were cameras in the bathroom.  Since Skaggs is a
movie producer, I figured the chances of a small
camera being in the bathroom were *high*.

A fellow female hiker received a phone call from her
husband.  Skaggs implied to the husband that the hiker
and Skaggs were sexually involved.

When the new caretaker took over, he created a webpage
for Hikertown.  In doing this, he stole a picture off
of my trailjournal.  It was a picture of me, Apteryx,
Garlic Man, and Mercury sitting on the porch of the
Sierra City store.  Sierra City, NOT hikertown.  The
Hikertown caretaker stole the picture off my
trailjournal, cut out our images, and did some
photoshop magic to make it look like we were at
hikertown.  After I found out about this and emailed
the caretaker, the picture was removed, but I'm still
wary about the sort of person who would do this.

And the list could go on........

Another PCT-L post today from a 2005 hiker stated
"females may feel more comfortable here in numbers". 
That should tell you a lot.  Do you want to spend time
at a place like that?  It appears to me that the bad
vibe that surrounds this place has not disappeared.

I won't go to Hikertown the next time I hike.  Shade
and water aren't worth the uncomfortable creepy
feeling that accompanies a trip to Hikertown.  I'd
rather walk a mile down the highway and get water from
the little store.

yogi

www.pcthandbook.com






--- shelvinrock@comcast.net wrote:

> Finalizing my 2006 thru-hike schedule and was
> wondering about Hikertown at California Highway 138
> [near Lancaster] as a stop; Yogi's August 2005 guide
> suppliment mentions it as "still wierd", and her
> 2006 guide says only that "serv ices are available
> at ... Hikertown".  Not trying to start a food-fight
> here, just working out my options.
> Thanks...
> Tim S.
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