Motivation into Wrightwood & Mount Baden Powell – PCT 2017: A Hiking Story [09]

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Part 8 ‘Hippy Hot Springs & Big Miles to McDonald’s’

Day 24 (21/04) – Up, Up, Up

After limited sleep due to Echo’s… lovely… train highway campsite, I was still tired and weary. The huge 32-mile day yesterday had taken its toll on my body for sure, and more rest was needed. Echo fared even worse and said he had less than two hours of sleep. We had no water, and the only water nearby was back in the valley we came or McDonald’s. McDonald’s was further uphill and we’d just be tempted to spend more money, so we went to the river. It was mostly dry downstream, but there was some flow further back. After filtering I tasted it – ‘bluuuuurgh, yuckkk!‘. I called it horse piss creek, and needed to add a flavour substitute to it to make it even drinkable. There was a water cache in 5 miles, so we should be ok I thought.

We hiked over and around a small mountain range, and when looking back, could see the huge train network in the area. We made it to the water cache not long after. It had a reasonable amount of water, cotton tips and some peroxide. I chose to replace 3 of the 5 litres I had with this fresh water, and leave 2L kg horse piss creek water in my dirty water bag for backup. It felt wrong taking more than 3L from a cache, who knows how fast it would run out for other hikers.

Echo and I set off for the uphill stretch all the way to Wrightwood. Like many areas before, this stretch was burnt out from the huge fires that ravaged the area the year before and provided no water or shade.

Up, up, up all day! The most up I’ve ever done in one section. It was deceiving as the mountains and ridges we crossed weren’t really tall, but the general land was sloped uphill as we head higher into the mountain range.

I ended up catching up to Corky on this stretch of the trail, who was now alone after the three girls (Rex, Aaron and Claire) all pulled off at McDonald’s due to injury. Only Aaron had a major injury though – her shoulder we found out later. Corky was hiking slowly as usual, so Echo and myself overtook him. Although by now, I was well ahead of Echo at this point as he had knee issues himself. We began to get comfortable hiking together, or alone, either way, we generally were meeting in similar places.

The day went on and on, in this dry uphill stretch. I had found this to be the hardest day yet, and I was feeling ever-so-weary. It might have had something to do with the big days beforehand, or just the lack of shelter from the sun. My motivation to continue was Rex messaging me, telling me there was beer and dinner ‘on the house’ from her dad (who was visiting to hike with her for a week). ‘It’s McDonald’s all over again’ I thought, thinking of food constantly.

At last, I made it to the pine forest at the top – ‘trees‘, I think… ‘beautiful pine trees‘ (after all the burn area). Snow was in patches and a cool breeze ran over the hills making it very refreshing. It was very nice to be back in the high desert. The Acorn Trail, the side trail leading into town, was the next turn-off for us. I did a loud ‘COOEE’ (Australian attention signal) and got a faint reply from Echo – ‘good, he’s still behind me‘. I was thinking to wait, but decided that he knew where we were going.

I then headed down the steep steep Acorn Trail, with its tight switchbacks. ‘Beer… food… beer… food…‘, playing over and over in my mind. It felt like it only took half an hour to get to the bottom, despite the pain and weariness. I waited here for Echo, but he didn’t come. Corky eventually strolled down, he hadn’t seen Echo the whole day. ‘He was right behind me‘ I thought. We ended up leaving him a note and pushed on the last mile of road walking into Wrightwood. We had to get there soon, the others would have eaten by now. Along the road, the houses were insanely huge and expensive looking. The town looked pleasant and welcoming in general, especially with a giant ‘Welcome PCT Hikers’ banner.

It’s times like this when you feel like a desperate piece of shit. Here I am, hot, dirty and hungry, having hiked a huge amount of miles in the day. Only to walk into town off the mountain, straight into a Mexican restaurant, briefly greet friends and immediately eat their leftover food and guzzle water! I said to Rex “don’t judge me, you know this feeling!” as I ploughed into the food whilst trying to maintain some form of conversation. I eventually ordered a fajita and beer. We shared some of our trail experiences from being apart, and in the process, I also met Rex’s dad Tim, who was generous enough to pay for our meals.

Eventually, Corky and I needed somewhere to sleep, and decided to just sleep behind the hardware building that was meant to be hiker friendly. Turns out, we were pretty much sleeping with the dumpsters – like true homeless people! What a bonding moment it was!

Distance hiked: 24 miles

Total PCT hiked: 363.5 miles

Day 25 (22/04) – The Township of Wrightwood

I awoke from my awkward cowboy camping location early. It was about 6am, and people started showing up to work via the car park nearby. I was just lying there behind the fence at the back of the building as people walked past – ‘morning!‘ I’d say with a wave, appearing as non-homeless and friendly as possible.

Corky and I packed up, left our bags behind the building and roamed the streets. We briefly saw Sling and her partner (who was visiting) leave their motel room, followed by Rex and her dad (Tim) in another room. Rex was kind enough to let us use their shower before the check-out time was up. We felt much better after a 20-minute shower each. Eventually, Sling and her partner showed up in his car with Echo! Rex found him at the trail junction to the road and called Sling to pick him up – lucky for him! He missed the Acorn Trail turn-off it seemed. He also joined us in the room for a shower.

We got hold of a trail angel that Bottlecaps was staying with who lived by herself with a camper van in her driveway in which she lets PCT hikers stay. Bottlecaps told us the story of how he got lost and ended up hitching all the way to Wrightwood. We ended up staying there where she let us shower, do laundry and use the internet.

We also did our resupply from the supermarket and retrieved packages, including our snow gear from the post office which we had sent to ourselves.

I messaged the people I knew that were in town (Sling, her partner, and Frosty) about going out for beers and dinner in town – along with the four of us at the trail angles house. We discussed the trail and plans and had a great feed.

Day 26 (23/04) – Sharing Trail Stories

Today was going to be a nero day (near zero miles day) for Corky and me. We needed to get back up the Acorn Trail to the PCT and continue on towards Mount Baden Powell. Echo, Bottlecaps and Sling were going to meet us hopefully tomorrow.

Before I left, I had to send my bounce bucket (the bucket with stuff I didn’t currently need) and ice axe to Kennedy Meadows, the last tiny stop before the Sierra Mountains.

We set off at around 1pm, and started the never-ending climb back up to the ridge. For what took about 20 minutes to come down, took about 2 hours to go back up. With relief, I made it to the top and pressed on.

Shortly along the trail, I came to a campground with two familiar faces that I hadn’t seen since the day before Paradise Cafe – Hansel (or Han Solo as I call him) and Grundle. Corky also caught up, and we decided to camp there, even if it was only a short distance.

We ate an early dinner and sat around the fire catching up on stories over our separate adventures. The highlight was when I brought up the ‘Hippy Hot Springs’ (as I call it) story. I told them my story involving us walking away from at least seven hot girls, some of which naked. I thought our experience there was going to be bad compared to other guys’ stories, but it turns out I was wrong!

Corky told his story of how he arrived so early, and how he had just bypassed it – uneventful. Then Grundle told their story of how they arrived with mostly nude guys, and how one of them ‘invaded his personal space with his bare crotch’. The funniest part though was when he acted out a situation that occurred, where he turned his head at the moment one of the nude guys there bent over and farted, and he could see his ass ripple! ‘Hahahaha!’ I was in tears, and suddenly my hot springs experience was amazingly better than I thought!

As it grew dark, we could see a distant Los Angeles to the South. I had no idea I was that close to such a huge city! Once the lights came on, it was more clear. Sadly, there was a heavy fog or smog in the air and we couldn’t see overly far.

Distance hiked: 7.5 miles

Total PCT hiked: 367 miles

Day 27 (24/04) – Mount Baden Powell

A 5am start by alarm – at least I have a headlamp now (I left mine accidentally in the San Jacinto hut). My breakfast and pack-up routine took 50 minutes, which isn’t overly bad. It was better than my initial hour and a half. Corky had already set off, but I’d catch him easily as he was a slow hiker.

The trail continued through the forest and past what would be a series of ski fields had it been winter. It felt weird walking past the ski lifts when there is no snow.

I made it to Grassy Hollow Visitor Centre and found the spigot (tap) containing the only water in the area. It was slightly cloudy and tasted like rust, even after filtering. I put in a favour electrolyte supplement to remove the foul taste.

I was now heading towards Mount Baden Powell, a 9260-foot (2.8km) high mountain in which the PCT passes next to its summit. There were some other PCT hikers at the base of the Mt Baden Powell trailhead that I hadn’t seen before. They started over two weeks before me, and we’re bypassing the mountain for the alternate route due to not having snow gear. I guess everyone hikes their own hike, but doing the PCT in a high rainfall year and skipping the snow sections is just silly in my opinion – the challenges are great fun!

Going up Mount Baden Powell was switchback after switchback. Eventually, when the snow became thicker I just went straight up to the summit. It wasn’t as hard as San Jacinto, and I only needed microspikes, and not the ice axe.

The views were incredible to the southwest. Before the final climb, the trail passed along a ridge, with an insanely old tree named Wally Waldon – a Limber Pine – some thousands of years old! I signed the overly-full register at the summit, right under Maximus’s signature, who passed through 3 days earlier. ‘It was unlikely I’d see him again if he was travelling that quick’ I had thought to myself.

After marvelling on the summit, I had just realised how badly I needed to go to the toilet. Frantically, I began to try and find a way to scratch the surface to dig a cat hole, but it was too rocky. There was no time. ‘I’m sorry Baden Powell, but I need to defecate on your summit’. This was not my finest moment, but it needed to be done – at least I did it cleanly and left ‘no trace’ there. How may you ask? Because I made a poo snowball and kicked it off the edge.

As I headed back down to the PCT, I ran into Echo. He had started separately that morning from the highway junction where he left for Wrightwood. I was fairly cold though, and needed to push on to keep warm. The trail followed the ridge for several miles. The north face where the PCT went was heavily snowed, meaning you needed to make your own trail for a lot of it. In some sections, I used microspikes – although some sections had deep enough footings to get by without them.

The view to the south was now filled with clouds, offering a spectacular view – it was a very scenic day! Towards the end of the ridge was Little Jimmy Spring, where I filled up some fresh-tasting water – finally! I poured out the rusty-tasting water I had left over.

Shortly after the spring was Little Jimmy Campground. It was only 3:30pm, but the day was strenuous and I worked out I could do three roughly 23-mile days after, which wasn’t as steep. I was the only one at the campground for many hours which was a unique experience as I was so used to camping with others by now.

By the end of the afternoon, many other hikers had arrived, and were grateful for the fire.

Distance hiked: 17 miles

Total PCT hiked: 384 miles

Next Post:

Part 10 ‘Trail Closures & Reuniting at Hiker Heaven’ 

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