Mile 363 to 444 – Wrightwood to Santa Clarita via the San Gabriel’s (May 4 to May 11)

Wow – this thing is an absolute adventure. Every part. My planned Double Zero (aka a pair of rest days) turned into a Double Double Zero. After a couple days in Rancho Cucamonga, I was resupplied from the local REI and ready to go, taking an Uber back to right where I left off at Cajon Pass/mile 342. But the next 20 trail miles were closed after an early season fire (Lytle Creek), so I set out Tuesday afternoon from the drop for a road walk along Lone Pine Canyon Road (and I couldn’t help but think of the reference to 1985’s Back to the Future – look it up!). I got 2 miles in to the 10 mile road walk, declining offers for a ride and then accepting one after the minimal shoulder/ditch became tedious.

I’d planned just one night in the lovely mountain town of Wrightwood, but yet another snow storm was in the forecast. I thought maybe, here coming up on mid May in SoCal, an exaggeration. But the forecasts had been pretty spot on and I’d just sent my warmer gloves home, picking up super light sun gloves during my resupply. My one night was in a quaint AirBnB and I was ready to head up 3,000 feet above the town to rejoin the PCT above Wrightwood, but made the call to wait out the storm. The host referred me to a friend of hers that was charging just $30/night for a bed in a shared house with other PCT hikers and it was PERFECT. Much more economical if I had to extend the stay off trail, and of course I met more cool people with stories to tell!

Once committed, I embraced the extra time in Wrightwood, visiting the local brewery and also a classic mountain pub, The Yodeler where I met the proprietor, by wild coincidence a year younger than me and lived in my hometown Issaquah until he was 15 before moving to SoCal. He had a formative base in Seattle sports and had Seahawks decals on display. Particularly relevant, he was happy to put the upstart Kraken hockey playoff game (vs Dallas) on and I had two amazing meals and beverages on Tues and Thurs to watch the games and chat with patrons. Not what I expected, but once again rolled with it!

Thursday it snowed as forecast, pouring 4 inches of fresh snow on Wrightwood and much more up high. It was beautiful and I enjoyed the day, feeling glad I was in the lodge and not shivering in my tent on snow with my new $3 gloves from the gas station!

But Friday morning, it was launch time and the snow was gone from Wrightwood but plenty up higher. I was up at 5:30 and out earlier, walking 2 miles through town and to the connection Acorn trail. Light snow turned to over a foot of fresh on the still melting seasonal snow pack. It was manageable, but still such an odd experience doing this in trail runners with anti-dirt gaiters, pretty useless on snow. During the Cinco de Mayo Friday climb, I met another PCT hiker traveling solo by (trail) name of Skye on the ascent and we ended up traveling the day together through the heavy fresh snow. He was just starting the first day of a section hike from Cajon Pass/Wrightwood to Kennedy Meadows over the next couple weeks, year 2 of an 8 year plan to section hike/run the full PCT. It was one of those really cool PCT connections were talked all day, found we much in common and great stories to share. He was raised in Germany, married to w Swiss woman and had worked for the outdoor clothing brand Mammut in Switzerland and then for the last 8 years lived in Vancouver, BC near my own home working for my #1 favorite outdoor clothing brand Arc’Teryx, working quality control with international vendors. Also the father of a 20 year old and 17 year old too! This is such a huge part of the magic of the trail, as we had this wide ranging, amazing conversation as we battled up the steep ridge and spent a solid 7 to 8 hours walking in snow continuously in non-waterproof trail runners in temps not much above freezing. We then arrived at Vincent Gap, where the trail intersected with the closed Highway 2, joining at least 2 dozen other PCT trekkers scattered around the big empty trailhead parking lot. We camped together down by a little creek, wrapped our great conversation over evening coffee and then the next morning, he was on his way with a fun farewell. He was out at 5am, and moving at about twice my daily mileage (30 miles vs. 15). Part of why this is all so cool is we had a wonderful friendship for a day, will stay in touch, but then do the tail at our own pace. This day was a perfect illustration for me about the human connection side of the trail, as I’ve met some truly amazing people on this adventure, but ultimately I am moving at my pace as a solo traveler, at a pace that makes sense for me and camping where it works each day. It’s hard to imagine in regular life to have freedom of this magnitude AND make enduring and meaningful connections as you go at the same time!

Saturday May 6th, I set off on one of the most memorable days yet, traveling along the closed and ruined high section of the Angeles Crest Highway 2, 11 miles from Vincent Gap to Islip Saddle The winter’s wild weather had left the Highway strewn with flotsam, rocks everywhere, occasionally big trees and boulders and still mounds of snow. The main trail rose up 3,500 feet from the Gap to the 9,400 foot summit of Baden-Powell and then continued along that ridge line. A few tackled the summit with all that fresh snow, but I found the apocalyptic road walk truly incredible. I’ve always enjoyed the post apocalyptic genre in books, film, and TV (even though I’d rather these stories stay relegated to fiction) and fully embraced the eerie and mysterious walk. When I got a few bars of coverage I was also able to FaceTime my freshly 19 year old daughter Isabella and wish her a Happy Birthday while she was hanging out in her day room at the sorority. While it was difficult not to be with my eldest in person on her birthday, this was a seriously special moment to me! Then as the PCT does, this joy and awe evolved over the course of the road walk to suffering and some torment. The last 5 miles had a ridiculous amount of snow, on top of the previous days snow walk and my feet were over it. The final stretch was through a burned forest, as cold wind was blowing through the pass and foggy, socked in conditions set in. I was frankly, pretty miserable. Then another night set up by a vacant parking lot with a few dozen other PCTers, this time on a small shoulder of weed-ridden dirt between the parking lot and a steep slope, cold enough to fire up my stove from inside my tent while shivered. The PCT taketh and the PCT giveth…

Sunday morning, I woke up and my suffering feet from yesterday felt perfectly fine, again like magic. Made absolutely no sense, but every shift in physical pain, I roll with, enduring the bad side and celebrating the unexpected good. This next stretch of Highway 2 was closed the public, but open to maintenance vehicles and the stretch was a different sort of post-apocalyptic. A fine road, through tunnels, with only a few rocks about yet totally devoid of traffic though wild open terrain of the San Gabriels. This day included included a year-round PCT trail closure to apparently protect an endangered frog of some kind, and the Far Out app noted that the road walk could be a bit unpleasant with cars whizzing by. Not today, not today my friends! It was beautiful, my body felt good and there were just a handful of other people out strolling down the highway, all to ourselves. 8 miles in today (and 19 road miles total), it was finally time to return to the trail as the elevation continued to lower and the snow came to an end for this leg of the journey – no more expected on the trail the rest of my North Bound SoCal journey over the final few weeks. All in all, it was only abut 4 miles less to walk the highway vs. travel the trail, and a few thousand feet less of elevation gain. But, a true one-of-a-kind-year PCT experience that I’m so grateful I had the chance to experience. I will have to come back one day and day-hike that Baden-Powell summit however…

Monday and Tuesday continued through the San Gabriels, finally coming to an open section of the highway and seeing a dose of civilization again as I set my tent for the night at a bend in the trail. Tuesday was memorable in a whole new way. The terrain though miles 404 to 430 was particularly rough – the ruins of the forest from the 2009 Station Fire (largest in LA county history) left endless brush and excess blowdowns each winter. Slow going, and often unpleasant hiking, especially because nearly that whole stretch was on a north facing trail with a slightly eroded left to right sloping trail that just hammered on the sorest part of my body, the outside part of my left foot. That whole day however there were huge C-130 planes circling overhead, likely out of Edwards Airforce Base nearby and often coming in wildly low over the trees. I had another round of coverage and got share this with Isabella, who this very week had here most intense flight lesson as she works towards here pilot’s license. And I got to see updates of Whitney from her 8th grade track meets where she is having an amazing time! I felt really connected to them both, offsetting the rigor of the trail, and flat missing my family.

Wednesday morning was the final stretch of the is segment, departing camp at a little over a mile high in elevation on a ridiculously cold (for SoCal in mid May) and foggy morning but then getting another dose of aviation fun. At the ranger station there, a helicopter was taking pairs of maintenance workers to the top of the big power transmission lines to do annual maintenance, tether to ropes from the helicopter and deposited on each tower. Being only a few miles from 6 Flags/Magic Mountain, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Ninja Ride there that I shared with such joy with a 5 year old Isabella that same year of the massive fire in 2009!

I finished the day and this segment around noon coming out another Indian Canyon, this time PCT mile 444. I caught ride into Acton and had another one of those mind-bending first-meal-off-the-trail lunches and a very cold beer at a PCT-Friendly place called the 49ers Saloon. The owner was pulling out the stops to make his place another paradise for hikers passing through and loved my couple hours there. That afternoon, the son of a college friend drove out 30 minutes from Santa Clarita to pick me up to put me up at their house for a few days. We had a great conversation on the way back and my gratitude cup absolutely overflowed as the Marquez family put me up for 3 nights at their home where I rested, recharged, talked climbing and law enforcement and simply had a time I won’t forget.

The absolute ICING on this cake of joy and gratitude was that my wife wrapped up a big conference in Las Vegas and then touched out a 4 1/2 hour drive on the heels of a huge night for her on the last day of the conference (and several presentations she did) to spend a couple days with me. I could write another book about that experience, and my some day, but for my PCT blog, I’ll just say the love I feel can’t really be continued in the known universe, perhaps appropriate as they continue to call me Black Hole on the trail…

Now as I return to the trail, the wheel (of weather) has turned again and the cold night I endured last night on the trail has turned into desert heat and temps over 90 during the next ~100 miles in lower desert country. My suffering, joy, and love ahead!

Cheers,

Black Hole