Day 20: Wrightwood and Baden Powell

Miles Hiked: 14.5

Total Mileage: 383.9

I have to admit this is the first time I have been caught up on my blog since the first week on trail! Although I still ended up writing this at a break the next afternoon. I have been struggling so much to write and take photos. I’m not sure why.

Anyways, Wrightwood was the best trail town I have been to so far. It was almost unbelievable how nice everyone is to hikers and almost every business in town had some sort of Freebee for us. I slept in til 6:45 am which was nice. Dirt Magnet and Is room had no windows so it was nice to not be awoken by natural light. It is so hard for me to sleep in I practically can’t unless I am in a room with absolutely no natural light to wake me up. As soon as I woke up I started working on the last few days of blog posts and getting them published with pictures included. It felt good to be caught up for once. I will say I’m still a bit overwhelmed by how unorganized all my pictures are so far. I called the yoga studio in town that I heard was donation based for hikers. I wanted to confirm the information and make sure they knew myself and possibly other hikers were coming. Before the class I went to a coffee shop with Cam, Rainbow, and Dirt Magnet. They gave us all free drip coffee which was so nice and really good! I ended up buying a croissant and I even got a free patch there as well!

The yoga class started at 9:30 and all of us who came into town together ended up going. To be honest it was the worst yoga class I’d ever taken but I was still glad I did it! It was hilarious how casual it was and I barely stretched anything it felt like. At one point the yoga teacher called Rainbow a “Jackass” because he was doing a more advanced pose than the rest of us. Totally unacceptable in most yoga communities but I found the class to be so hysterical I wasn’t surprised. To be fair the class was called “gentle” yoga but it was way more gentle than I anticipated. I’m thankful we could all go to a class!

After yoga class I went to the hardware store to buy Leuko Tape for all my blisters since I ran out. It cost 200% what it normally costs on Amazon but it was nice to buy it in person because I’ve never seen it sold at a store before. These people know what hikers need. The hardware store also gave all the hikers really cool PCT pins for signing in the data book. I was glad I went to town just for the cool pin! I hope I never lose it. On the way back to the house we were staying at, I picked up some ice at the gas station for my shin. It didn’t hurt when I was hiking yesterday but as soon as I got to town it was aching. The gas station even gave hikers a free item off their little grill! It’s unbelievable what the businesses in this town do for hikers. Back at the house I iced my shin and did a couple of last chores before hitching out with Angus.

A nice local dropped us off at the trailhead around 3pm and we began hiking. My objective for today was to get up and over Mount Baden Powell. My legs felt fresh and I was glad for the rest before doing a big climb. The trail descended about 1k feet before a 2.6k climb up to the top of Baden Powell. At the trail head before the climb I ate a protein Puck and put on some music. I took it easy on the climb just because it was so much elevation gain at once. The last mile to the summit had about 20 switch backs but a lot of them were covered in snow. There wasn’t a ton of snow so I was actually happy to see it and get to do a bit of strategic route finding. At the top of the mountain I found Angus and we took some pictures at the summit.

Angus and I hiked the last six miles to camp together. I was really tired but I wanted to descend as much as possible so it could be a warmer night at camp. The trail followed a ridge after Baden Powell that had some snow on it. I slipped and took a couple of falls that kinda hurt. Luckily the snow eventually ended. The sunset was so pretty tonight. I was happy to get to hike in the evening hours. I love getting to hike first thing in the morning as the sun rises and last thing in the evening as it sets. Right before camp we both got water at Little Jimmy Spring. It was flowing beautifully out of a pipe. The campsite was so cool. There were picnic tables, large pine trees, and bear boxes. I set up a cowboy camp between two pine trees. I was so happy to be done for the day. I made some Ramen for dinner. I haven’t been cooking much at all. I wish I would have not carried a stove and sent it to myself in the Sierras instead. I couldn’t get to sleep very well so I looked at the map ahead for tomorrow and updated a personal data log I keep of my miles.

Happy Trails!

-Early Bird