Day 24, 13.55 miles!

 

Well, I’d have to say that today has been one of my favorite days, and DEFINTELY my favorite afternoon so far! Initially, I was planning on just hiking 5 miles into Wrightwood and taking a nero there today. Either hiking out ~1 mile, or even staying the night and leaving in the morning. Here’s what really happened...

I woke up today in a FREEZING cold Guffy Campground. The other hikers had already left, but I figured I could sleep in as I didn’t want to be out on the road too early trying to hitch into town, and also, it was freezing cold! When I finally did get up and get moving, I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful morning:

I caught up to and got to talking with a hiker from Hong Kong named Ian. He said the mountains looked like islands floating in a sea of clouds, and that got us talking about Hawaii and the ocean! Ian has windsurfers for 20+ years and is a very prominent waterman back home. He has traveled the world doing what he loves and about 5 years ago discovered his passion for the mountains and backpacking.

We soon got to Highway 2 and very quickly caught a ride into Wrightwood on a little All Terrain Vehicle that reminded me of a suped up golf cart!

Ian and I getting a ride into Wrightwood 

Ok, so it turns out I’m really horrible about remembering to take pictures while in town, so I’ll just have to tell you all about it. We were able to get dropped off at the Evergreen Cafe where we met Julian, Aaron, Omri, and Shadow! We all ate a HUGE delicious breakfast. Julian’s girlfriend had driven his vehicle from his house and they offered me a ride to the Mountain Hardware store where I was awaiting a few packages.

Brand new insoles! I swear the ones in the middle used to be that color blue, that was 1,200 miles ago! 

I also got new Injinji toe socks (I’ve been wearing only one pair for 230+ miles... gross). Also, I got a great care package from mom! As always, it was filled with goodies and made up 80% of my next stretches’ food supply! Thanks mom! While I was hanging out in the back of their store in the hiker area I also got to talk to Claire for a bit and ran into Happy!

Happy

I did some other things there like fully charge my phone, and go to the grocery store for some tortillas and peanut butter. At around 2pm I made the decision to head out of Wrightwood instead of staying the night.  A couple hours later, I easily got a hitch out of town and was back at the trailhead by 4pm. 

Ok, now here’s the funny part... I had meant to just do a few miles (between 1 and 3), and camp out for a fresh day tomorow. I knew that Baden Powell was just ahead,  less than 5 miles away, and wanted to start it fresh in the morning!

Looking up at Mt. Baden Powell

The first 4.5 miles out of Wrightwood were absolutely beautiful, and soon I was approaching Mt. Baden Powell. By now it was already 5:45pm, around the time I usually stop for the night, and I figured that when I got to the Baden Powell trailhead, I’d set up camp in a flat area next to the parking lot. What I didn’t plan for was Pat..

Pat

I had seen a few hikers gathered around a small picnic table and headed over to see what was going on. This amazing man above named Pat, offered me pizza and beer! There were three slices left and he told me I must eat them all! I already ate about 2 meals in town AFTER breakfast, but I never refuse good pizza! 

At about 6:30pm, we all thanked Pat and he drove away. I was feeling oddly energetic since I had just loaded up on more calories, and decided I’d climb a mile up Baden Powell and stop and some campsites that were known to be there.

I got to the campsites but of course I still felt energetic. There were some more spots in another mile, I’d just stop there. At this point, the sun was nearly going down, and I was still about 2 miles from the top. I passed Happy who had left town before me. He was planning on doing a sunrise hike. Soon I was so close, I couldn’t NOT get to the top, even if it was dark!

I pushed up the hill with everything I had, the sun setting as I went up the switchbacks was so amazing..

Up and up and up I went! This is the largest climb in the shortest distance so far on the PCT. From the parking lot to the summit it’s 2,811 feet straight up in just 4.04 miles!! I was flying up there! I got a few sweet pictures on the way up not facing the sun:

Facing Guffy Campground where I camped last night

The Wally Waldron Tree, a 1,500 year old limber pine

I made it to the top a few minutes after 8pm. I met two other hikers up there, Lux and Poprock, and Lux took a picture of me at the summit!!

Elevation 9,399 feet!!

Post-sunset panorama from the tippy top :)

It quickly got super cold, and I changed into some warmer clothes. I still can’t believe I just did this and am now sleeping at the top of Baden-Powell!! Woot woot!! I am very exhausted and tired and cold, it’s already after 10:00pm as I wrote this but I really wanted to write it tonight. I plan on waking up at 5:00am to catch the sunrise. 

What a great day!! (So much for my nero huh?)

Thanks for reading!!