PCT Days 28 & 29 – Roadies

After hiking almost 30 miles yesterday, you might have thought that I was tired last night. But I passed through that evening hour where sleep is supposed to start and ended up watching TV like a zombie until 11 pm.

I woke at 5 am and forced myself back to sleep until 7. Maybe sleep will come easier tonight. The most important thing ahead today is picking up my new shoes from the post office. I had sent these shoes from home before I left for the trail. I estimated that I would need new shoes now, and I was right.

However, my old shoes did remarkably well. Their first 100 miles came last year on the PCT in the Sierras. I put another 50 miles on them in Florida. The last 350 have been walked on the PCT this year. That’s 500 miles, and a very respectable age for a hiking shoe. The uppers were remarkably solid. The cushioning was good until about mile 450.

Wrightwood feels like a real town rather than a tourist town. My room was across the street from the municipal park and there were parents with children there constantly. They have some kind of organized baseball there, too. I can hear the cheering. It’s very relaxing.

The Mixup

At the end of my post yesterday I invited you to use your mystery-solving skills to determine how I ended up at the wrong room. Well, after I left a voicemail for the spa, I lent my phone to Jeremy because he had lost signal on his phone and become disconnected from his hotel. Jeremy dialed his hotel on my phone, but before the hotel picked up, Jeremy got a call from the same hotel on his phone, so he hung up my phone.

The hotel returned the call that Jeremy had aborted on my phone, thinking that it was a new reservation. But instead of calling, they sent a text “Sorry we missed your call. Can we help you with a reservation?” When I got the text, I assumed it was from the spa people with whom I left the voicemail. So when I replied and made the reservation, I thought it was texting with the spa.

So I walked a mile out of town to stay at the spa, even though my reservation was at the hotel. Ironically, to get there I had walked right by the place where I actually made the reservation.

If you figured all that out, you should be writing mystery novels rather than whatever it is that you are doing.

The plan

The night before we were to start hiking again, Jeremy, Shelley and I made a hiking plan for our next stop, Acton.

The trail starts by going up to Mount Baden Powell. The trail is still covered with snow up there, and we have sent our snow spikes home in Idyllwild. (Not smart) So we will do what many on the trail have done this year – walk the road around the mountain. It’s two miles longer than the trail.

“What kind of an adventure is that”, you might ask. It’s safer. We will still walk 5 miles of the PCT today. The road walk adds another 17. If we do the whole segment, we will have done 22 miles. If we don’t make it all the way, we can camp along the road.

Road walk

We walk on highway 2 out of town at 7 am. I am fueled by cold leftover pizza and Dr. Pepper. Our destination is Inspiration Point. Several people stop to ask us if we need a ride. We graciously refuse. We are walking these miles as substitute PCT miles, so no cheating.

A vehicle goes by. A hiker in the back seat is grinning at me and waving at me as he goes by. At Inspiration Point I see that it is Granite. He is the lone hiker I saw at the spa when I mistakenly went there.

Granite proclaims that he is going up Baden Powell despite the snow. He lights up a bowl. Then he boasts that since he is from Maine and a little snow doesn’t scare him. I tell him I am from Florida. He says, “Say no more,” and gives me his blessing.

Back where we belong

We hike up to Inspiration Point. It is quite inspirational. Here is the valley to the south.

And here is the view east. That’s San Antonio on the horizon.

As we leave Inspiration Point, Baden Powell lies directly ahead of us. Maybe next time Baden.

The trail goes up and up. Wrightwood was at about 5500 feet. We are going up to 8200 by later in the day.

We get one our last looks at the majestic San Antonio.

We go down to Vincent Gap for lunch. Vincent Gap is a primitive camp site along Hwy 2. Within minutes we are surrounded by thru-hikers. They are all talking about their Wrightwood resupply and how much all that food weighs.

On the road again

From here the trail goes up Baden Powel. But as I mentioned earlier, we are going to take the road around it. Shelley, Jeremy and I don our umbrellas for the sun. This will be my third time using it. I’m starting to like it.

I forgot to mention that the highway we are walking on (California 2) is closed to traffic. The road took a lot of damage this winter from rock slides. There is still snow covering some sections. There is no telling when the road will be open again. We watch two workers clearing snow from the road.

We don’t go as far as we had hoped. After 19 miles we find a flat spot next to the highway and awkwardly pitch our tents. Tomorrow is another day. Unfortunately, there will be more road to walk. But after that it’s all PCT.

• June 1 & 2, 2023
• Starting marker: 363.4
• Ending marker: 386.1
• Miles walked today: 19
• Total PCT miles: 356