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. 

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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.  

Woke and packed up early. Was one of the first ones out, which means I got passed a lot today by this bubble of hikers. The tortise wins the race, right?

The tentative goal today was to make the hot springs at 307.9. That is a 22 mile day.

Really good scenery here, which my photos will not do justice. The first few miles followed Holcomb creek.

Then up and over a couple ridges

Finally down to the head waters of Deep Creek.

Had some lunch at a primitive campsite.   It had a typically uninformative map of the place. 

Lots of blow downs on the trail. Quit a few are dead from previous fires.

Got to a huge foot bridge over deep creek at mile 298.5. Had some lunch with a bunch of folks who were swimming, relaxing. That is Fun Dip waving from the bridge.

When I crossed the bridge I saw this.

According to the paper on tied to the tree, the guy planned to propose to his GF on Saturday (tomorrow). Hope nobody rearranges the message.

The trail followed Deep Creek from here. around 300, there was another big ass snake laying on the trail. I stopped and poked him until he got off the trail to the left, but the damn thing got himself boxed in a shear wall 6 inches from the foot path. To the right was a shear drop. A trapped animal is dangerous so I was trying to coax him out when Fire Ranger comes bounding down the trail and tries to pass me, almost stepping on the snake.  I’m yelling “Snake!!!!” and he almost jumps down the drop, scares the shit out of the snake and me. Good news is the snake ran off and everyone survived.  Man….

Video of Deep Creek Section

Really interesting hike along the canyon walls following the creek. Since we are not supposed to camp at the hot springs and it was getting late, I called it about mile 306 and setup with some german and french folks in a flat spot next to a big tributary. the running water. Washed the socks, feet and did a little rock hopping.

Almost pitched the tent on top of a yellow jacket nest (they live in the ground). I’m sure that if I started driving stakes there, it would have been a cloud of pain. That was a close one.

Fireball cowboy camped right next to me. He was using a liquid fuel stove, which always freaks me out a little. Fortunately no explosions, just a lot of flame and soot. We had a good chat and sacked out.

Did a 20 today. This time my left ankle is bothering me. It is getting worked by the concave trail (the ridge was on the left side for most of the hike).  I believe my condition is “anklus hurtitus a lot-us” Popping some extra ibuprofen for tonight.

Hot springs on the agenda for tomorrow morning!