Checked out at 6 ish in the morning and hung outside a cafe until 7 so I could get a mega-breakfast.    It came on two large plates: 4 biscuits and gravy, 3 eggs, 2 sausages, half a plate of hash browns.  Should have taken a picture.  Ate it all.  Can’t believe how hungry I am these days.

Took 10 minutes to thumb a ride.   Folks are so nice here.  Picked up David along the way.   He and I would hike together for most of the day.   Started trail at 7,300 feet (mile 369).  

Ran into this gal along the way.  

She rescued a kitten in Wrightwood and is now hiking with the thing.   The kitten is wearing a Darn Tough sock with 2 holes poked in it.   He rides in a little box the gal wears around her neck.   Wonder how cute that cat will be in 2 months when he weighs 5 pounds and start shredding her equipment.  

 

Consensus among the more cynical, male members of my hiking group is…..well, I won’t bother.   For those who know me, I’m sure you can imagine my thoughts on the topic.   Pretty sure that cat will soon be in a box being shipped to her not-so-happy parents soon.

It was a bunch of ups and downs until 375, then a grueling 2k foot climb over 2 miles to the summit of Baden-Powell.  

We started running into snow around 8.5k.  It got pretty thick in some segments.   Several hikers, Dave, and I bushwacked up several segments to avoid some of the sketchier parts.

David and I switched off on leading up.   I’m a little slower, but last longer.   David hauls, but stops longer.   Our styles are pretty compatible.   David is 60, about 6’3″, and in great shape.   He’s a semi-retired engineer, who spent last 15 or so in software (supply chain mgmt stuff).    Ran some sales/service groups so we had a lot to chat about.         

Finally made the spur to the summit (mile 377).   I was thinking about skipping, but some other hikers + David convinced me to go up.  Glad I did, it was fun.

After lunch, David and I picked up another companion.  Hollywood who is from Seattle.   This guy is a real character.   Mid to Late 20’s, college degree, done a bunch of different things from bartending, chef, medical work.   The funny parallel is that he assisted in researching how crows recognize faces of humans.    I remember reading the study.   I’m sure Quark would be interested in this guy.   They could do some bird bonding.  

Don’t have the heart to tell these guys I spent much of my youth shooting crows from the tractor :p. 

Next objective was 6 miles to get water from Little Jimmy Spring (Mile 384).   It was mostly downhill, but in typical PCT fashion there are plenty of little climbs along the way.  

I have my filter setup inline with my platypus bag, so at any stop I just dump my bag in the water, fill up any bottles, and leave.   Most folks spend another 15 to 30 minutes squeezing water through filters, etc.   

Since I was done early, I headed off to check out the campground.   It was an awesome setup….too good to pass up.   When David and Hollywood turned up, it didn’t take much to convince them to stay.   Bunch of others showed up, we Hollywood and I built a fire, had a good time socializing.   Even the cat lady showed up later in the evening. 

Only 15 or so miles today, but one of the best days on the trail.   Hopefully tomorrow is more of the same.        

 

This will be a short one.     Today’s objective is to hike 5 miles to hwy 2, catch a ride to Wrightwood, resupply, shower, and stay the night.  

 It was still super windy in the morning.    Probably gusting to 40 over the ridge lines.    Checkout the high clouds.   The high winds are turning them into flying saucers.

I found a patch of snow in need of some decoration.  Did this during a short break. 

Turns out most of the trail was around and through Mountain High Ski resort.  

Got to Inspiration point, Mile 369, around 9 or 10.    Cars were bringing up folks from town to restart the trail, so getting a lift was easy.  

We just hung around the parking area and when a drop-off would come in, we’d swarm the car and start loading our packs.    I’m not sure if the owners knew what they were getting into since as soon as they got to town, the same thing would happen with hikers wanting back on the trail.   It must be hard to break the cycle 🙂 

I picked up my bounce box at the post, bought a bunch of food and got the last room available at one of the cabins.   Walked into the local mini-mart and was given a free hotdog by the owners.    That was awesome.   Wrightwood has a brisk hiker support business going.  

Catching some sleep, breakfast, then hitching back to trail tomorrow.

 

 

Storm blew out yesterday and today seems like low temperatures and windy.   Perfect for what is ahead… a climb back up to 8k.   Scarfed down the free Best Western breakfast and packed a couple of extras from the table.   Good start for the day.

After crossing under the 15 and some railroad tracks, the climb was reasonably consistent and gentle.    Just following the wash on the ridges surrounding the valley.  

Here is a little video of turning a typical corner on that climb.

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After a bit of climbing on the Southeastern ridge, there was a small decent through the valley to cross over to a much bigger climb into the tree line.   Ran into a little trail magic sponsored by the folks at Wrightwood.   Unfortunately, just water here.   A beer would have been nice.  Even if it was a PBR.   

Turns out that water cache was all that was going to be available for a while.   This one at the base of the hill is dead and gone.

The bulk of the day was climbing through a huge burn area.  Apparently this fire started near the Cajon Pass and just burned up higher and higher.   First the brush, then bushes, mid-sized trees, and finally the pines and redwoods.    I think this stream of pictures tells the story.

 

By now I was getting above 6k when I ran into a guy named David.   He was around my age, but was a little flustered.   He had just woken up from a nap and said he was disappointed with his energy level.   I suspect it is altitude….I feel ya Dave. 

After my David encounter, it was time for some late Lunch.    Found a graded fire break that offered some good views from the ridge line and boiled up some noodles. 

Climbing continued up to 8k.   Got above most of the clouds, so there were some cool views looking down into the valleys.

Dave caught up to me during one of my pauses

 

 

My goal was to get to a campsite within 5 to 7 miles of Hwy 2 so I could nero / resupply at Wrightwood tomorrow.  Unfortunately that meant camping at 8,000+ feet which is usually a bad idea after a storm rolls through since it can get cold.  

And, of course, that’s what happened.  Around 4 it started to get windy.   First it was 20 mph gusts, but they kept growing by the hour.    I started taking compass readings of the wind (coming directly from the West), so I could better pick a protected campsite when the time came.

First option was at 361.   Nice camp grounds, but on a completely exposed ridge.   Some folks were setup there with a camp fire, but it looked miserable.    I hung out a bit until a 30 mph gust of wind blew a bunch of embers into some people’s faces.    Time to move on.

Next was a place called Guffy Spring Campground.  Was the same situation, bunch of folks, top of an exposed ridge, fire being fanned by hurricane winds.   

I found a decent spot below the ridge line near the springs.    I was just getting some back-scatter which was manageable.  Spoke with a couple of dudes who invited me up to the fire, but that setting looked miserable.   Just crawled into my tent, ate a poptart, and crashed.  

 

Found out later that the winds got so bad up there a couple people just gave up, took down their tents, and night hiked.  I had to layer up in my bag.   Pretty sure it dropped below freezing. 

Did 22 miles and 6k of climbing.  It was a good mileage day. 

 

This morning I woke up at 6:00 and looked out the front door of the motel.

It was raining.   The wind was blowing pretty hard.

At 7:00, I added another day to my stay and had breakfast 🙂

Rest of the day was watching movies, reading, and watching other hikers deal with the mileage vs comfort dilemma .   ’nuff said.

 

Woke up and laid in my bag while the sun rose.   I was sacked about 10 feet from the trail so I figured I’d get up when the first hikers walked by.    Packing was a lot quicker…no tent, just stuff my pad and bag, eat some fig newtons, and get moving. 

Goal today was McDonald’s, then start climbing into the Angeles National Forest.    The McD’s is located at the Cajon pass where the trail crossed I-15 at mile 341.8.  It has been talked about for last 3 days like some kind of major milestone.   I’m learning that thru-hikers are funny like that…..the most talked about locations involve fatty food.

The day started with some unburned scrub hiking.   That was nice for a change. 

.    

There were some amazing sandy dropoffs on the trail.   It was a little scary with the wind gusting to 50 mph.    

Got another shot at Baden-Powell. 

Ran into Zach (now Sizzle), who I had not seen since our run to Sizzler at Big Bear.   We hiked together for 10 miles or so.  

He just graduated with a degree in marketing and was interested in the dot-com mania.   We spent a bunch of time talking about the Blockbuster / Netflix case study they teach in business school these days.   Funny that I can still remember working a consulting project in Dallas around 1999 where we were designing a digital delivery model for them.   They shelved it because dealing with the franchises was too disruptive.   10 years later they were bankrupt.   That seems a little more disruptive, no?

There was one crazy spot in the trail where there was a 200 foot stretch of shear drop on both sides.   One side was 400 feet straight down.   The wind still gusting 50+  Crazy.   We loved it  

After that it was a decent to I 15.    Can you believe there is an official PCT sign pointing to McDonalds?   

We arrived at mile 342 and headed to the golden arches.   It was about 12 by then and it was starving hiker pandamonia.    Every booth had hikers drinking shakes, eating pancakes/burgers/whatever, and charging batteries.    

Just for fun, I bought 2 10 piece mcnuggets in addition to my meal.   I anonymously tossed a box on two tables near me to see what would happen.   Table 1 had all guys, table 2 all gals.   One of the guys at table 1 asked “whose nuggets?”, after a 15 second pause everyone there devoured them.   Table 2 (girls) got into a lengthy debate about ownership.   That lasted for 10 minutes, until a consensus was reached and the nuggets were consumed with a velocity similar to table 1.    

I’ll have to run that experiment again sometime.

Ended up hanging out with Tim and Sharon who I had met briefly before Big Bear.   Her kids are out of school and they are moving from Orange County, CA up to Seattle.   Both quit their professional jobs and are just going through a reset.   I think Sharon is having a rough time of it…she is in shape, but the pack weight and daily abuse is rough.  Both are determined, so I think they’ll be out here for a while.   Probably see them again.

I decided to check into a hotel here today and take a lower mileage day of 12 ish.    Storm coming in tonight and I don’t feel like doing another 5 miles just to get rained on.