Day 30

Trail miles: 0

Total: 369.3

Our nero turned into a zero after town chores ran too late into the day. I woke up after 5am and decided to start my laundry before everyone woke up. It turned out to be the best idea because it became very crowded after 7am. My charging block did not charge at all until I changed the chord. I’ll have to remember which one works with it now. We hung around until about 10am and said our good byes to the odd but good people of the Bud Pharm. The Mountain Hardware store luckily had rain pants and socks I could buy so I could toss my holey ones out. They also gave us free pins at the store for signing in on their hiker registration. I sent mine home in a box full of gear I don’t need. Next was the açaí bowl restaurant which was ok. I should have went for the peanut butter one. We then headed up the road for free coffee and PCT patches. Resupply went smoothly, but was very expensive considering a Snickers was $2. Still cheaper than sending a package from a previous town. We packed 5 days of food. I caved and got a heavy ready-to-go meal, but I’ll make sure to eat it first so I’m not carrying it for very long. Raechel had to send her camera forward to give her feet a break from the weight, and she drowned her sorrows with a few beers. At that point, we decided it was too late to get back on trail. Krista got in touch with a trail angel who had a cabin with enough space for the 6 of us and it is a 180 change from where we stayed at last night. I went to the cabin early to have to quiet time while the rest got dinner at the brewery. I loved having some space for myself. I turned on Shrek 2 and repacked my bag for tomorrow. It was short lived as everyone rushed through the door to claim dibs on sleeping arrangements. Krista and I are sharing the big bed! It’s too comfortable to stay up and write any more.

Day 29

Trail miles: 17.6

Total: 369.3

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the top of the ridge, which was short lived as we headed uphill for 10 miles. I made it up by lunch after maybe 3 breaks, which means things went a lot better than the last big hill. I tried my first cliff bar smothered in peanut butter and I’ll never eat it any other way. For your next big hill climb: Don’t stop me now. After we got to the top it was more casual up and down terrain, which actually kind of bored me, so I put on a podcast. Some of the trails are not flat, meaning they are kind of sloped to the left or right which has been causing more blisters on the inside of my heels. The best part about climbing above 7000 ft is the pines we get to walk through. Lots of pictures and videos were taken. We walked past a ski slope today called Mt. High East - Yetis Snow Park. I was even able to sit on the last ski chair. When we reached the parking lot, there was a group waiting to drive hikers to the Bud Pharm, where they allow hikers to camp on a donation bases. We stopped at the market first where we got our free PCT hot dogs and then had deli sandwiches at the grocery store. The grocery store also had free goodies like beef jerky and fruit bars. Then we called the Bud Pharm shuttle to take us to camp, which was $20 per carload split 5 ways. We set up our tents and plugged in our electronics. Now we’ve been sitting around the wood stove all night. So the bud in Bud Pharm means this is a weed farm and everyone is of course passing blunts and bongs around. There are lots of dogs and cats floating around, and even a donkey! Now they are passing our burgers and chips served on plates made out of ripped up beer boxes. Feels like a very chill college party. But Krista is eating a very pink burger right now so wish her luck.

Town days are starting to stress me out more than get me excited now. While hiking, we just have to worry about filtering water and hiking to the next campsite. Before we get into town, we have to figure out how to get there, where to stay, laundry, showering, charging electronics, resupply, and then getting back to trail within 24 hours. Sometime those are all in complete separate parts of town. I hope it will get easier as we do it more and more. It would probably ease a lot of my trouble if I didn’t have 9 things to charge. As I write this they just introduced a plate full of warm chocolate chip cookies and are trying to figure out how to start beer pong. Anyway, I feel a lot better now that we are here and I got my stuff plugged in. We plan on sleeping dirty once more and doing laundry tomorrow morning. Then we should be able to resupply and head out in the afternoon. That means, you guessed it, a very short nero after town day.

I keep having to add more stuff because it keeps getting crazier. First the animals keep drinking out of the fish tank. That’s just funny actually. Then someone offered Krista and me back massages. That’s not crazy that was just glorious. He told me he can tell I carry most of my weight in the middle of my back and I need to move some of my stuff around to try to get my food in the middle of my pack instead of the top. Another man just preached to us about who knows what for 10 minutes. Less helpful. People keep offering to do shakedowns for me, but I know I would just fight them on everything. Maybe my back would thank me for getting rid of one of my five pairs of socks or 4 pairs of underwear. I know that sounds bad and I will get rid of some. Soon. 

Day 28

Trail miles: 10.5

Total: 351.7

Tried to sleep in a little, but couldn’t wait too long because we were excited for McDonalds breakfast! We were all happy not to have gotten murdered from the murder van down then hill, where we saw a hand reach out of the window the night before and adjust the window curtain. Raechel made the joke that she chose the side further away from the van so she wouldn’t get murdered first. 

Anyway, I got a sausage McGriddle that was so good I ordered a second. We saw so many hikers there. It’s funny that you don’t see anyone for a while on trail and then everyone pops up in the same place! We headed to the gas station to pick up fuel canisters and sunscreen to fill some time before lunchtime. The road we had to cross to get there was terrifying. Krista says the Del Taco was worth it. I tried charging my charging block at the gas station, but I think it’s broken from dropping it in the stream in the San Jacinto mountains. I will try ordering a replacement to Acton. We may be getting close to having another resupply box from home! Everyone said I shouldn’t worry about getting resupply from home since there are stores along the way, but my dinners are so much better! And I have lots of other goodies they don’t have like latte packets and pink starbursts. After we packed out our free Big Macs and Subway cookies, we headed up the a 2000 ft climb over 10 miles. We are carrying about 4 liters to dry camp in hopes we should see more water in 12 miles. We are camped at the top of a ridge so no wind protection. Hopefully the wind doesn’t pick up in the middle of the night. I kind of wish I packed out some chicken nuggets too. You know I think I only ate fast food today.

One last thought, people need to stop asking me what day I started. There’s no other reason you are asking me that other than to compare your pace to mine. I am doing the same thing you are doing no matter how fast I am going. I have to come up with a new response the next time someone asks me. If you have a good response, comment below!! Raechel thinks it’s a guy thing.

Day 27

Trail miles: 21.1

Total: 341.2

Our longest day yet! It’s embarrassing the motivation we have for some trail McDonald’s, which is 1.5 mi away. Raechel says we are killing ourselves for food that will probably kill us. She also mentioned stopping at the top of a hill to see if she could see the golden arches. Guess we are already all tired of trail food. Cajon will be a nice place to stop in and get more fuel and snacks too. We have a huge hill all the way into Wrightwood with no water sources.

Today was probably my favorite day for views. We headed for the first water source near Silverwood Lake and the trail around the lake was the best thing I’ve seen yet! I couldn’t believe there was so much water out here in the desert! We saw fishermen and a girl stand up paddle boarding. And then the hills leading up to the campsite were also spectacular. Good motivation for a long day. 

We ran into a not so friendly hiker who we have seen before. The first time was when she shushed me for asked Brad a question in a public area while she was on the phone. Then she came up beside a bunch of hikers and let out the largest fart. Koa screamed “was that a fart?!” And Brad dated it a 4/10. Raechel says she thinks she’s all that because she hiked the AT last year. Well the story of today is that Raechel walked out of the bathroom and said “it’s all yours Krista” but fart girl walked straight in. We waited for like 20 minutes and she never came out. We kept hearing the sink go off and the toilet flush. It was like she was taking a sink shower in there! We gave up waiting and never got to wash our hands. Hopefully we will get the chance to do it at Cajon because hand sanitizer is not the same.

Along with the rain pants that have ripped, I now found a hole in my socks and a hole in my shoe. Guess those will all need replacing in Wrightwood. My sleeping pad has a hole in it too so I have to blow it up throughout the night, but I want to patch that if I can.

Day 20

Trail miles: 17.3

Total: 248.2

Another long day with a significant amount of climbing. It took until lunch to get to the top of the 10 mile hill. I filtered 4 liters of water because we had a 17 mile dry stretch. I cut my lunch short to try to make it to camp before 6:00pm so I could have time to relax before bed. I am proud I can make it through these miles. The biggest struggle I have is when my pack is on too long, my back hurts. I just have to take more breaks and make sure those breaks are short. A hiker named Freedom helped me adjust my tent pitch so I could open up my vestibule longer and it definitely helped. Early morning tomorrow to make it into today for taco night.

Day 19

Trail miles: 17.5

Total: 230.9

Well the long mile days back to back are starting to get to me. Lots of elevation, heavy pack, and heat make for slow travel for me, which forces us to hike from sunrise to sunset. I spend all of the day hiking, eating, or filtering water. I hope to slow things down after Big Bear, but the trail towns may be too far apart. Depends on the terrain if I will be able to keep up. I felt ok today until the trail started following the creek. I thought that would be enjoyable, with less water to carry, but it turned out to be a jungle maze where we continuously lost the trail. We basically gave up when the sun started setting around 7:00pm. Ok so enough of the bad, the best part of today was Whitewater River! It was a treat to rest along a river in the desert. And then the second one at our lunch stop. A short summary today because I think I’ll go to bed now.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6rhz5IdIWfnU30MFuiL7Di?dl_branch=1&si=XlO9sa-_TMyJzbNrEIFvSA

Day 26

Trail miles: 14.1

Total: 320.1

We made it to the hot springs! We tried to get there early but I guess 6:30am wasn’t early enough because the springs were already crowded with naked people. I wasn’t going to give up yet. I did some recon and a little bit of rock climbing and found the perfect empty hot springs. It had high walls for seclusion and two warm water falls. Perfect for the cold morning. We got in with our underwear on and people did not bother us the whole time. We were in there for three ours! We ate breakfast and Krista made coffee and Raechel made tea. Krista found the best cutout of rock wall for her mug to sit in. Some of the pool was even deep enough to swim around in. Definitely a great place to lose some mileage. We found out it was crowded because there was a nudist furry swingers community having a candlelight ceremony for a furry who was shot and killed a few days ago. The hiker that told us this was in his third zero at the springs. I think he ran out of food because it didn’t sound like he was planning to stay that long.

The days are starting to get hotter again. Good thing too because I don’t want to wear my rain pants anymore due to the fact that I ripped a gigantic hole in the butt of them. Hopefully I’ll get some frogg toggs in Wrightwood. We met some creepy men at our siesta spot who were excited to see some “boobies” at the hot springs. Raechel was able to resolidify her snickers by laying it in the creek while we were filtering water. Brad ran off again. We are hoping he will bring us chicken nuggets and fuel since both Krista’s and mine ran out today. Thank goodness that Raechel thought to buy a new one every town because she saved our butts! Tomorrow we plan to do a higher mileage day to get as close to the McDonald’s in Cajon as possible so we can get breakfast and lunch there.

Day 25

Trail miles: 20.4

Total: 306.0

We woke up to frost covering everything. With the wind finally died down, it created a good environment for our first night of condensation, which froze in my sleeping bag. Everything else was under the tent so it stayed frost free. But out of the cold night, the coldest was putting my wet socks and shoes back on. The sun came out quickly so we were able to warm up fast. We took a lunch break at Deep Creek, where we took the time to rest and dry out our sleeping bags and tents. We skipped on trying to hitch to the malt shop because we wanted to get as close to the hot springs as possible without actually camping there. We figured Saturday night might be rowdy. We are camped at a site that’s marked as a water source, but someone commented that there are 3-4 tent sites above the stream. We are spread out in the bushes. Tomorrow we will try to beat the local Sunday crowd to the hot springs and leave as soon as some old man takes his pants off. Anyway, we hit mile 300 today! And met some nice people at the water source who came in by quad. They offered Brad weed, but he declined and later told me he would have rather them offered him their hot Cheetos. A true hiker trash response. Also last thought, why is everything keep trying to stab me in the desert? Every time I knock into a bush, it’s sharp and dry as heck. I’ve had enough!