85 miles – 4/29/18 – 5/7/18
The morning of the 29th I said goodbye to my friend Strawberry (Sisse), who I had been hiking with since the beginning. She decided to stay in Wrightwood a couple of days and I wanted to move on and get ahead of the strom that was going through the following day.
I hiked back up to the trail the same way I came in, the noticably steep Acorn trail, it was quite the way to start the day.
Once I hit the top I saw a couple day hikers but no other through hikers. As I hiked by a couple ski areas the clouds began rolled in like a fog.
I continued on, still not seeing any other hikers. Everytime I would pass under a group of trees I would get rained on by the water that had collected on them. I stopped at a visitors center which was closed but seemed abandoned, the fog made everything seem a little creepy.
I made my way to Vincent Gap, the base of Mt. Baden Powell. The wind was picking up, the fog was thick and I was alone. I thought about the fact I could be back in Wrightwood splitting a room with Sisse to wait out the storm. I knew I could push on and would be ok but I wouldn’t enjoy it. While I know I’ll will have to endure days of bad weather I won’t always have the option to go stay in a warm motel room. I stood there and debated what to do. I told myself that I’d hitchhike for 15 minutes and if I couldn’t get a ride I’d push on. After 5 minutes of standing in the cold, being passed by cars that may not have even seen me in the fog, I decided I wanted to go back into town.
Luckily there were a few cars parked at the trail and two women and their dogs were just finishing up their day hike. Feeling slightly defeated I asked them if they were heading back to Wrightwood and luckily they were. As soon as we drove over the mountian I just hiked the sky became clear and sunny, I didn’t know if anyone would believe me about the weather on the other side.
I spent the next two days eating and being lazy as I waited out the weather. I ended up spending a lot of time at the Racoon Saloon talking with other hikers, which was a nice break for hiking. I also had an amazing cinnamon roll at Cinnamon’s Bakery. While taking a few days off put me behind schedule it was worth it, I’m sure I can make up the miles further along on the trail, plus there’s no reason to rush into the Sierras since there is still plenty of snow that needs to melt.
After my break I caught a ride back to where I left off and made it over Mt. Baden Powell and was slightly frustrated to see that the forecasted 6″ of snow that made me take the extra days off didn’t come to fruition. The top of the mountain was amazing. Next was Mt. Williamson which wasn’t as tall as Baden Powell but still a good amount of elevation. On my way down my left foot felt loose in my shoe so I stopped and tightened it up, apparently a little too tight. After a bit my ankle started to ache, it felt like the shoelaces was cutting into one of the tendons on my foot. I loosened my laces and continued on with my ankle still hurting. I reached a portion of the trail that was closed to protect the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog and proceeded to take the detour along highway 2 to the buckhorn campground.
The next morning my ankle was still sore when I headed out, so much so that I missed a junction and actually headed south on the PCT towards the portion that was closed. The trail was fairly eroded which wasn’t fun with my sore ankle. When I figured out I was going southbound I turned around headed back to another junction and proceeded to head up a trail that wasn’t the PCT at all. After I while, and 5 miles of being lost, I made my way back to the PCT.
Even with my bum ankle and my goal was to hike past mile 400, which would have been just 12 miles if I hadn’t gotten lost.
Took a lunch break at the 400 mark and then pushed on. I passed a parking lot where two ultrarunners and their huskies we’re handing out oranges and homemade brownies, I had two of each and they were amazing, especially the oranges. They helped me and my angry ankle make it to the sulphur springs campground and set up for the night even though it was early in the day, I wanted to take it easy on my ankle. A good amount of other hikers showed up which was nice since most of the time I don’t give myself enough time to hang out before going to bed. There was even a campfire.
The following day I made my way over the hill and down to a fire station, which was the last water source for over hot 20 miles. When I arrived there was a guy that stopped by with a convertible BMW stuffed with trail magic. He was on his way to set up a ways back on the trail but he gave me some grapes, strawberries, a Coke and a beer. After a little while I found my way to a shady spot under a tree next to a parking lot next to the trail and stretched out on my ground sheet. A little while later two very exited guys showed up after finishing up a 100 mile stretch. They gave a bunch of random advice for the upcoming stretch, most of which wasn’t that helpful. They did give me my 2nd beer of the day though.
I left the shade of the tree and proceeded to climb up a hill in the heat. The goal was to go about 18-20 miles from where I had camped the night before but there wasn’t much in the way of established tent sites until 24 miles, and I wasn’t interested in going that far. As I hiked I kept my eye out for a spot to camp but didn’t have any luck. Just as I thought I would have to make it the full 24 miles I saw a spot up on a ridge 21 miles in. I decided to cowboy camp first time which was a fun change. A bunch of hikers from the night before also set up camp there as well.
It was a short 17 mile hike the following day with a stop at a ranger station that had water and ice cold soda for $1 which was nice. It gave me a boost to make the push to my destination, a KOA campground near Acton, CA. I was exited about a shower, pool, hot tub and ice cream. However, when I arrived it wasn’t that appealing. There were a bunch of non-hikers and the pool and hot tub looked heavily used so I skipped using them. Apparently that was a good call because I heard that the health department shut down the hot tub the day after I left. I didn’t like the vibe of the place so I just hung out until it was time to sleep.
The final day before Auga Dulce was just a 10 mile hike with a slight climb and decent before hitting Vasquez Rocks which was a very welcome change in scenery. A good amount of movies and TV shows were filmed in this area including the original Star Trek, blazing saddles, The Flintstones Movie and even a scene from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
After Vasquez Rocks it was a short road walk into Agua Dulce and then a short hitch to the amazing Hiker Heaven, the perfect place to stay, but more akbout that in my next post.