May 2, 2016

Jackson Flat Campground (mile 372.2 ) to bushcamp (mile 394.1)

Miles: 18.2 + 4 mile hitch

We had an awesome blog post but lost it all during the upload so the following is our 2nd attempt.

The sun rose in a cloudless sky illuminating our tent and faces with an orange hue as it poured through the trees surrounding our tent. Andy woke up groggy but Laurie was her usual smiling self.

Today was summit day and we were both excited. The weather predicted sunny skies. We hiked through the forest, down to Vincent Gap – the trailhead for the 4 mile hike up to Mt. Baden Powell.

“It isn’t all going to be like this, right?” Laurie asked Andy as she slowly made her way up the first few switchbacks.

Having lived in LA since he was 7, Andy has hiked many trails in this area- purposefully avoiding the PCT except for the portion to Mt. Baden Powell.

“No, you’re almost done with the hardest part,” reassured Andy.

We climbed on, switchbacking our way up higher and higher.

One and a half miles in we came to Lamel Spring and 4 new hikers – Rambo, Ash, Bridget and Alex. We said hello and continued on to the spring which ended up being a hole in the ground with surprisingly clear water. We managed to get 1.5 liters (enough to get us to the next spring).

We continued on another mile or so until the trail disappeared under ice and snow. We had been warned this would happen but we didn’t expect it so soon. We went cross country (directly up) patching together sections of dirt to avoid the snow.

Thanks to Laurie’s trail sense (courtesy of backpacking as a child with her mom) we found the trail near the top of the ridge.

Just below the ridge Laurie ran into a branch. “Ouch” she exclaimed. She was fine. Andy, hoping to avoid the same branch didn’t see another, sharper branch about 6 inches away.  The branch sliced open his hat and skinned his head. Thankfully there was no blood so we continued on.

We continued along the ridge gazing down at the valleys on either side and watching as the sky became darker and darker. So much for the sunny skies. But as Andy always says, it’s always 50/50. Especially in the mountains.

Our sunny cloudless sky was now grey. We could see rain in the distance.

We got to the Baden Powell spur trail junction, dropped our packs and scurried up the .1 mile to the top. Without the weight of the packs we felt like we could fly!

It started to hail as we summited. We took a few pictures and returned to our packs by the estimated 1500 year old tree.

The hail intensified for a few minutes then stopped all together. We enjoyed the last of our leftovers and continued down – heading north along the PCT.

We hoped that with a different orientation this side of the mountain would have less snow. In total it did, but still had a few tricky traverses.

Andy, who is not as confident on snow, slowed down significantly. Laurie encouraged him and gave suggestions on where to place his feet. Despite all of this he slipped and fell twice – in the same spot. Laurie did everything she could to keep from peeing in her pants laughing.

Andy pulled out his microspikes and with the added friction he confidently crossed the remaining snow areas.

We ridge walked through burn areas, around rocks and through forests of pine trees. Gradually we dropped down to Little Jimmy Spring, where we had planned to have lunch, but with the benches full of hikers and no room for us, we continued down to Islip Saddle on the Angeles Crest Highway.

The trail then ascended 1000 ft and descended 1000 ft to bring us back to the Highway 3.2 miles later. This trail keeps doing that – having us climb up and down only to return to the same elevation. We don’t necessarily mind this.

The PCT is closed for 4 miles past Eagle’s Roost for an endangered yellow legged frog. Our plan was to road walk 2.7 miles to Burkhart campground and connect to the PCT there.

As we neared the road after our pointless 1000 ft mountain jaunt, Andy yelled “I hear a car!”

Without missing a beat Laurie ran the 20 ft to the highway and stuck out her thumb. A Tesla slowed to a stop and we both ran to it.

Malcom gave us a ride 4 miles up the road to the campground. We hadn’t intended to skip the last 1 mile before Eagle’s Roost but the ride was too good to pass up. Particularly since we hadn’t seen many cars on the road all day! And as icing on the cake we got to ride in a Tesla!

As we were collapsing our poles to get in the car a motorcycle rolled up. The guy had been talking with Malcom and chatted with us a bit. He became our escort to the canpround – we felt like royalty!

We are continually amazed at the generosity of strangers. It’s so great!

We walked through the campground and along the Burkhart trail for 2 mikes back to the PCT. The trail dropped down into a lush redwood grove. We crossed a river and found and spot to camp one tenth of a mile up the trail.

We were tired and this was a great looking campsite. We were home for the night.

Tonight we are grateful for trail sense and microspikes.

May 1, 2016

Wrightwood to Jackson Flat Campground (mile 372.2)

Miles: 12.4 (8.8 PCT miles + 3.6 to PCT from Wrightwood)

Sleeping in a bed is good, but neither of us slept as well last night as we do on the trail. We believe this is due to a combination of over stimulation, going to sleep way too late and worrying about family.

We were excited to be heading back to the trail.

Our friends Josie and Matt drove us to Wrightwood and hiked with us up the very steep 3.6 mile Acorn Trail back to the PCT.

The sun was shining but there was a chill in the air.

We walked through neighborhoods and eventually reached the Acorn Trail. Once on trail we huffed and puffed with every step. We felt as if we hadn’t hiked at all the last 25 days.

We are carrying 6 days of food and our packs are heavy. Combined with the elevation gain meant we were struggling.

After about an hour and a half we reached the PCT junction.

Boy were we relieved! All four of us.

We hiked on another half mile to a dirt crossing, where we stopped for lunch with a beaitiful view of the mountains. Once again we enjoyed leftovers for lunch. We owe a huge thank you to Andy’s mom and his aunt for always making such scrumptious food.

Soonafter lunch, Josie and Matt walked back to the Acorn Trail. It was wonderful to be in their company and hike with them.

After lunch we felt really sluggish. We could barely move. Two zero days had turned our legs into cement. We pushed on, motivating one another and distracting each other with conversation until 5pm, when we made it to camp.

We are content with a relatively short day and excited to sleep early tonight.

There’s no one else here at the campground. Most people either hitched to Wrightwood or hiked past us tonight.

Most of the people we met on the trail today were new to us. Andy enjoys this but Laurie feels left behind.

We are all on different schedules and hike at different paces. And that’s OK. Laurie is working on warming up to this concept.

We ate dinner – more leftovers, snuggled, gave each other massages and laid in our sleeping bags listening to rain land on our tent.

Tonight we are grateful for adventurous friends and soft ground on which to sleep.

April 29 and 30, 2016

On the trail we crafted a list of all the things we wanted to do when in L.A. This included things like airing out our wet tent, condensing our first aid kits, taking out qtips and colloidal silver from every resupply box since we aren’t using them as quickly as we had anticipated, and other odds and ends.

We were ambitious.

Even though we had 2.5 days to do all that we wanted, there wasn’t enough time. Our list didn’t include meals with family and visiting with friends- the things that became more important once we were settled.

The last 2 days were nice but felt like a whirlwind. We both look forward to returning to our simple life on the Pacific Crest Trail.

On the trail there is a limited amount of food choice and as we get closer to our resupply point the options become even more sparse. We did a great job of creating variety in our bars and dinners but there is only so much backpacking appropriate food one can eat. There is something refreshing about that simple way of eating.

In towns and even more so now in L.A., Laurie found herself getting overwhelmed with options. Everything sounded good and knowing that we may not have it for the next 5 months made it feel even more urgent to eat everything in sight.

Needless to say, we both over ate. It is so hard when there is an endless supply of tasty food! We haven’t encountered “hiker hunger” yet but can sense it is coming. At least for the first few days of this next section we will be well prepared with full stomachs and tasty leftovers!

Sunday morning we head back to Wrightwood and back to the PCT. Our friends Josie and Matt will be joining us for a day hike and we look forward to sharing the day with them.

Laurie spent Saturday visiting her mom in Oakland, CA while Andy continued running errands and checking things off the list.

He also made time to nap, a rare treat for us on zero days thus far.

Our packs are packed, leftovers are in ziplocks, and our clothes are clean. We still stink, but at least we’re not dirty. No matter how many times we shower, our arm pits still stink. Oh well. We just have to embrace our new smell.

Tonight we are grateful for airplanes which allow for quick visits with family and readily accessible power outlets.