Saturday, March 1st 2025, 0610-1400
Weaver’s Well to Najah’s Hi Sahara Desert Oasis Gas Station, Fenner, I-40 mm129, End Section 6. Elevation 2080′.
22 miles.
My jacked-up shoulder was pretty sore in the morning. But my more pressing concern was what the alkaline water was doing to my plumbing. As happy as I was to find the water, there was a small price to pay. Yet another benefit of hiking alone is that one doesn’t have to go far from their tent to did a cathole. As in, just feet away. Thank goodness, because I came very close to finally becoming a real thru-hiker! Not yet though. That good old alkaline water, it sure gets a morning off to an early and expedient start!
I planned to get into ‘town’ a day later, but as usual was ahead of schedule. I didn’t want to carry extra water from the cow trough for another day anyway, so I set my sights on Fenner for the afternoon. I walked a series of easy dirt roads across a small valley, then a bit of cross country into the next range, the Piute mountains. The Routemaster handed me an easy pass this day, directing me onto the “Piute crossing road,” a standard ORV track going nearly straight-line through the range. His notes read “this straightforward trajectory intends to strike a balance given the energy exhausted by this point, since the last resupply way back at Parker.” Here, Here!
I have to admit, Brett did a great job of mixing the really tough stuff with the less tough going. It felt like I was transitioning from one type of hiking to another every 30 minutes, so I really appreciated the variety…and the periodic reprieves. Brett later told me that I was only the 2nd hiker this season to do the full route through section 6, so I was very proud of this accomplishment. It was definitely the hardest and driest section of them all, but also the most scenic, remote and rewarding! There wasn’t one range that I wouldn’t gladly visit again. Walking the long valley stretches between the ranges made them seem all the more special, like they were hard-earned. I guess the only part I didn’t like was crossing HWY 95, but it was a necessary evil for the benefit of being able to cache food and water.
The ORV road had an amazing view through the mountains down into the valley far below. I could see the trains going by, then later the traffic on I-40. I walked for hours and it felt like it wasn’t getting any closer. I was really eager to areive to ‘town’, even though it consisted of nothing more than an overpriced gas station. But for once, being a woman held a distinct advantage at this place. Men had to use outside port-a-potties, but there was an actual women’s bathroom with a sink inside. And I intended to take full advantage of that sink!
The final cross country across a barren landscape went by fast as I used the dull walking to catch up with phone conversations. I enjoyed talking to my cousin for over an hour, then suddenly I was going under the train tracks as numerous multi-story trains roared by. I went straight to the nearby wash to retrieve my buried food cache (since the gas station can’t hold packages), then made the final 1 mile walk to ‘civilization.’
Here’s the kicker, though. In my excitement, I forgot that I’d buried TWO bags, an opsack and a small ziplock, simply because I couldn’t fit everything in the opsack. I figured it was ok for just a week, and it was. But what an idiot, I left the small bag in the hole and had to walk all the way back for it, 2 miles RT. At least I was able to leave my pack at the store. I tried to bribe a few people stopped for gas to drive me there, but as you can imagine, such an unusual request brought about abject stares and disgusted looks. “Excuse me, I have a bag buried in the desert just past the underpass, can you help me retrieve it?” Yeah right. Not even white privilege or being a girl in a dress could help me with that one.
This stupid task cut into my down time but at least on the way back, I got to meet the store manager, Carolyn. She was local to Fenner (apparently it’s kind of an actual place), where her family had ranched for many years. I asked her about some of the water sources I’d found and she confirmed that they were still maintaining many of the wells, including the one that saved me the night before. And we laughed about how skittish the cows were…”You won’t find more wild cows than out there,” she joked. They basically never see any people and are nearly feral.
It reminded me of the time I got charged by a cow in New Zealand. The rancher admonished me for not realizing that “these aren’t your run of the mill dairy cows, these are WILD cows!” I’d missed the warning sign on them. Apparently there’s also a small herd of burros in the Piutes. I saw their poop, even cleaned some off one of the guzzler aprons, but never saw them. They too are quite skittish, I’d bet. But maybe not as confrontational, like the ones near the Bill Williams river.
In the store, I also became friends with Chris, one of the employees. We talked about walking and the meditation of being out in the desert. He had an interesting story about driving hours all the way from Kingston AZ to work at the store. He worked 4 days a week and stayed in an employee cabin while he was on shift. Everyone seemed to be really enthusiastic about working there, which just seemed so odd given the location and also the situation with the high prices. If you google the store, you’ll see it has a 2 star rating and hundreds if not thousands of complaints about the $7 a gallon gas and premium prices on junk food. But I have to say, after spending nearly 24 hours hanging around there, I’ve never seen a more patient, friendly, and professional group of employees. The amount of times they had to field questions about “where’s the bathroom?” (even though signs were clearly posted all over the front door) and also put up with complaints about the high prices (also posted), I would lose my shit in less than a day. But these kind folks handled it like champs.
They were so used to the complaints that they often headed them off at the pass. A guy was about to ring up a case of energy drinks and the clerk warned him it cost over $40 before he even sat it on the counter. Oh F-that as he quickly went to put it back. Not the best salesmanship, but also fewer disgruntled customers this way. Chris didn’t even want to ring up my $12 Stouffers lasagna. I had to assure him several times that it was ok. To me it was a small price to pay for the use of the sink.
He and Carolyn also invited me to camp off to the side of the store where they had picnic tables and an out-of-commission fountain pool (too bad, cause it would have made for the perfect bath). I set up my tent right on the concrete, inside the pool, using some rocks as anchors. It worked great! I hung out at the nice tables inside the store until 9 pm, then did my best to drown the noise of the interstate, trains, and highway. It was insanely loud but since I’d walked a full day and was therefore tired, I actually got a pretty good night’s sleep. A Benadryl and earplugs of course aided in this, my standard, go-to hacks.
I think I managed to only spend about $20 this first day, and for that got some hot microwave treats, a pretty decent sink shower, some ziploc bag laundry done, and a place to pitch my tent. A pretty good deal, I’d say! Bucking the trend of all the bad reviews.
Best of all was getting to pet Amir, the store “guard dog.” Looks wise, he more than fit the bill. Huge and scary. Normally I feel very uneasy around german shepherds, but the instant I saw Amir, I got a very friendly vibe. Turns out, he’s such a friendly monster that they had to put a ‘service dog: do not pet’ collar on him. Being too friendly to all the customers was ruining his training as a guard dog.
Of course, I immediately broke their rule and petted him. Borderline cuddled him, too. Ooops. They said it was ok since I was hanging around for so long. Who could resist his ridiculous perky ears. He was also so smart, positioning himself right under the cash register where it was impossible for customers to ignore him. Amir was like Ferdinand the Bull, cast into a role he just didn’t fit. What a ham.
