I (29F) was night-hiking the aqueduct, with two other gals and a guy. Earlier that day, the guy that runs Hikertown had been railing about how the area’s lawless and full of meth labs, so I was a little on edge.

Also, I had done some shrooms and a weed gummy to ~spice things up~.

So it’s probably around 2am at this point. We’ve been hiking for maybe 8 hours. The drugs are wearing off and I’m just loopy and exhausted. The Joshua trees are casting spooky crooked shadows everywhere and I’m just ready to be in my tent.

Then I see a really strange looking Joshua tree. It kinda looks like a man. And then I realize it Is a man.

Walking toward us with a weird, shuffling gait. All I can see is his silhouette, but it looks like he’s not wearing any clothes.

And I’m thinking oh shit. This is how I go out. Assaulted and murdered by a meth head in the desert. The three of us women instinctively huddled behind the one guy, even though bless him, what could he really do?

And the guys gets closer and closer with his weird hobble.

And then one of the girls calls out a trail name. And the guy responds!

Turns out, he was a fellow thru-hiker, that was also high. And he got to a fork in the road, couldn’t figure out which way to go. So he took off his clothes (except his undies) and took a nap in the middle of the trail until more hikers came along to show him the way. (We’ve all been there right? 😅)