PCT Day 27 – The Limit

I get out of bed when my alarm goes off. It’s 1:20 am. Today I am attempting the biggest challenge of my 2023 hike. I am climbing 5000 feet to Wrightwood. The distance is 22 miles on the PCT plus 4 miles of access trails. There is a stretch of 17 miles of no water.

My new friends Jeremy and Shelley are also going up this morning. I will be hiking with them. It was their idea to start at 2am and hike in the dark until sunrise. There is a water cache on the trail 5 miles after we start. But since we don’t know if the cache will be stocked, we are carrying enough water to get us to the top in the worst conditions. It would be great if we could make it all the way to Wrightwood, but our backup plan allows us to stay at the top of the climb, and then descend to Wrightwood tomorrow morning.

Here we go

When I get out of bed I try not to wake Keith, but he is as nervous about my hike as I am so he bounces out of bed too. We say our goodbyes and I am off. Jeremy and Shelley are waiting for me in front of the motel. We walk across the I-15 overpass, past the McDonalds and reach the PCT. It is 2:15 and we dive under the expressway.

I have never hiked at night. My whole life I have been a little afraid of the dark. That is why I have two headlamps – one for the trail and one for camp. I did not even know how to operate my trail headlamp until yesterday. ( Thank you, YouTube video.) I take two sets of extra batteries just in case.

Jeremy takes the lead, I follow him and Shelley brings up the rear. Here is what it looks like as we walk.

You can see that the headlamps do a great job illuminating the trail, even when the trail looks like an abandoned Time Machine.

The trail near cites and roads is often confusing because there are so many casual footpaths and side roads. We get turned around several times until we finally get away from the roads and train tracks.

Since we barely know each other, we spend a lot of time talking about our lives. Jeremy is a retired trial lawyer. Shelley is a retired industrial engineer. They love sports. They have kids and pets, so there is a lot to talk about.

The sky brightens just a little as we reach the water cache at 5am. There are hikers camped near the cache, so we switch our headlamps to red lights to minimize our presence near the hikers sleeping around us.

Water Management

Hiking uphill in warm temperatures in exposed conditions can dehydrate you rapidly. Drinking replaces the fluids you lose through sweat and heavy breathing. the down-side is that water is heavy. We started out with 6 liters (12 lbs) of water in case the hiking conditions are bad or we just hike real slow. There is water at the top of the climb, but it is not convenient to collect. If we fell OK, we would prefer to head into Wrightwood.

Cloud walkers

As the day dawns, we see that the clouds are low today. The sun peaks through only occasionally.

Within a few hours we have hiked into these clouds. The only views are close to the trail.

The hiking is slow but steady. We can’t afford to run out of energy, but we have to make gradual progress. It’s always fun to encounter other hikers, especially ones coming from the other direction. These young ladies are chilling on a road that crosses the trail. We ask them about trail conditions and town accommodations. They have been through a lot of snow. We take their information into consideration.

Above the clouds

There is something about being above the clouds. For low landers like me, it is thrilling. It is one of the reasons I love the window seat in airplanes. Today the view is incredible.

All day we are still in the San Bernardino Mountains. We are following the Upper Lytle Creek Ridge westward. To our north is Lone Pine Canyon. In the canyon is (ominously) the San Andreas Rift Zone. On the south side of our ridge is the canyon that holds the North Fork Lytle Creek. It’s a perfect place for a trail. But it is hard!

It’s nice that we have views toward the end of our hike today. We are tired! Conversation and views distract us from our burning feet and aching backs.

Slowing down

At the end of our climb is the Acorn Trail that leads down to Wrightwood. It is over three miles and descends 2500 feet. It’s no picnic. We are 6 miles from that trail when we decide to go all the way to Wrightwood. We spend a few minutes reserving accommodations using our phones. I leave a voicemail at for my hotel.

Jeremy has sporadic reception, so I let him use my phone for a second. He dials his hotel, but does not complete the call. This simple act will have repercussions later when I try to check into my room.

After that, we are resigned to going another 9 miles. We have already done 16 miles. Jerry is stoic about it. Shelley is more vocal about her discontent. I think the phrase she kept using was “the limit of human suffering.” I try to cushion the pain with a little wry humor. We stop to rest a lot. The altitude is getting to Shelley. We are all beat. But eventually we reach Acorn Trail. Now it is all downhill.

It’s a long slow hike down. A paved road is halfway down, but although it is lined with homes we see three times as many dogs (6) as people (2).

Wrightwood

In Wrightwood we split up. My room is at a spa one mile out of town on Highway 2. Grimly I head out.

The place is called Holistic Health Day Spa and Lodging. The place is deserted when I arrive except for one hiker upstairs. The code the manager texted me does not work on room 4. There is no room 4!

I text the manager through whom I made the arrangements. After some discussion, I learn that I am in the wrong place. My room is in the same hotel as Jeremy and Shelley!

What happened is too convoluted to describe here. The result is that I have to hike the mile back into town. I call Keith on my way back, and we laugh about it.

In the end, I grab a pizza and some beer and crash in my room. What a day! It was both better and worse than I could have expected. But that’s life on the PCT!

• May 31, 2023
• Starting marker: 341.9
• Ending marker: 363.4
• Miles hiked today: 29
• Total PCT miles: 333
• Based on the information in this post, can you tell why I was at the wrong place?