Day 40: Three Hours at McDonald’s

Defying expectation, my sleeping pad did not leak at all this night! I’d left my attempted Tenacious Tape repair over the hole despite its awkward placement near the valve so maybe it took a few days to properly stick and seal? I still wanted to replace it with a foam pad due for the increased reliability and quicker setup but this was an interesting development.

Walking under power lines makes for fun photos.

My ankle was swollen again this morning confirming that I had gone too far yesterday due to getting stuck on that hillside. It made the hiking a little slow but thankfully I didn’t have far to go to Cajon Pass and the promised McDonald’s there. I walked past a bunch of power lines then descended past some quite steep cliffs. As I got lower it became more and more of a gorge with a trickle of water running. The transition back to civilization was quite sudden: one moment I was walking through a shallow and rocky valley when, turning a corner, the valley opened up to a trailhead and busy freeway. Dirt path turned to concrete road and I walked up to the promised land of salty and greasy fast food.

It was very windy here but the descent wasn’t too bad otherwise.

It was absolutely full of hikers. Entering the McDonald’s I was immediately confronted by an entire wing full of fellow PCTers who raised a modest cheer at another comrade joining them. I ordered some food and joined Bear Pop who had left earlier than me and crushed miles to make it here in the morning. I ended up spending about 3 hours and placing 3 orders during my time here and I’ll summarize them as follows.

• Order 1, the hunger satisfier: Quarter pounder with cheese, small fries, and a strawberry shake.
• Order 2, trying things that looked good: 10 piece McNuggets and Filet O Fish.
• Order 3, filling my belly for the road: A spicy McChicken sandwich and a frozen fruit punch Fanta.

A cute gopher snake, one of the few snakes out here you can easily get photos of. The others are either stealthy, fast, or in the rattlesnakes case, venomous.

Glad I passed through during the day, I bet it gets DARK in here at night. Fun graffiti though.

I did want to make my hike tomorrow a little shorter so I headed out around 5, aiming to walk 2 or 3 more miles. I headed under the freeway through a deeply sketchy-looking underpass, then under some railroad tracks, then over some more railroad tracks and through a weird looking pipe. It felt like I was jumping through a lot of hoops to navigate the turbulent intersection where the wild PCT met one one of the arteries of civilization. The rocks in this area were grand however and somehow the presence of trains passing through made it more picturesque, not less.

Just trains doing train things.

I passed a large campsite about 2 miles out but it was concerningly close to the railroad so, fearing for my sleep quality, I pressed on a little longer. I found Bear Pop about a mile farther with room near here so I set up camp nearby. No dinner was necessary due to the sheer mountain of calories I’d consumed earlier so I just went to bed.

Day 41: Fire Detours

Got going at 8 the next morning feeling a little behind on sleep. Bear Pop stayed behind taking her usual slow morning. It was mostly downhill a few miles to an excellent water cache where it seemed quite a few hikers had spent the night. The last few hikers were packing up and singing a capella while I filtered water and they were pretty good!

A misty morning. Could’ve also been smog due to the nearby freeway but I choose to believe its mist.

The rest of the day was a slow uphill. It wasn’t too hot but it was strangely humid and I ended up deploying the sun umbrella to bring my temperatures down. There were a few things in my favor however. First, there were beautiful patches of wildflowers coming into bloom. I stopped at multiple points to take photos. Second, the first of my audiobook holds were finally coming due. I was listening to the first of the Murderbot diaries, All Systems Red, a book I’d read before but I wanted a refresher before diving into the rest of the series. It was a quick listen, only 4 hours, but entertaining and helped pass the time well.

Wildflowers are coming on up and the bees seem to love it.

While eating lunch (salami and cheese on a tortilla, the last food in my bag I was actually excited to eat) a couple called David and Nia stopped by and handed me some Oreos which felt great. I finally reached the fire closure trail exit point at mile 356 and began my 3 mile walk back downhill to the road where I could hitch into Wrightwood. It felt disappointing using all that exertion to climb uphill then having to immediately go back down, especially knowing I’d have to regain all that elevation post-Wrightwood to get back to trail. It had been a long day so my ankle was telling me it was ready to stop. Bear Pop caught up with me near the bottom which meant we could hitch into town together. We passed a field full of ancient abandoned farm equipment then stuck out our thumbs to almost immediate success and into Wrightwood we went!

Peep this mutant lizard. Two tails!

Our ride dropped us off at a pub that she recommended and we had the classic hiker town dinner of a hamburger. Hello Kitty randomly joined us as he was coincidentally walking by and we coordinated renting a cabin together to spend the night. It was a nice place too, they even provided pajamas so we could throw all our gear in the wash. The fit on mine was pretty bad though. My shirt was a fair bit too small but my pants were comically large on me and I had to improvise some paracord into a belt to keep it up. I spent the evening blogging and intermittently watching some Netflix show about a serial killer that Bear Pop had on.

Day 42-43: Wrightwood Zeros

We packed up the next day and hit up a local diner for breakfast, then headed to the Wrightwood Hardware store afterwards. It’s the main hiker hub so it was the natural place to hang out while we decided next moves. I got lucky while there and ended up with most of somebody’s abandoned resupply box. I also was able to pick up my new sleeping pad, a NEMO Switchback foam pad to replace my leaky Xtherm which I sent home. I also received a care package from The Trek, thanks Jess!

I don’t really take photos on zero days so please enjoy this selfie of me at the hardware store.

Hello Kitty headed out early and Bear Pop was heading out in the afternoon but I’d decided to spend at least 1 zero here to give my ankle some recovery time. After both my friends had headed back to the trail I walked to my lodgings, stopping at a local farmer’s marker that had sprung up. I got some delicious cherries, some freeze-dried ice cream (a personal favorite), and a few tamales for dinner. I spent the rest of the day doing very little. I iced my ankle, watched videos, chatted with a friend from Texas, and overall wasted time, letting my body relax from its state of near-constant activity that the trail demands. Sharing my cabin was another hiker called Trash Panda who I learned was another Trek blogger!

The next day was much more of the same. I blogged all morning, got groceries and lunch, then knitted, blogged and rested for the rest of the afternoon. It was the quintessential zero in that not only did I not hike any miles, I also did almost nothing and it was great. I did pack up that evening however so I would be ready to go early in the morning. I wanted to get going early so I could still try to make miles on the ascent up Mt. Baden-Powell.

Trail Stats:

Catholes: 14

Stops to filter water: 40

Resupplies: 8

Hitches: 9

Zeros: 9

Crys on trail: 6

Blisters: 4

Gear repairs: 7

Miles skipped: 17.8