October 28

Distance: 23.9 miles | Ascent: 5340′ | Descent: 6930′

Mile marker: 2292.4

Lunch: J&A – grapes and chips and a muffin (A+)

Dinner: J – enchiladas (A+), A – chimichanga (A+)

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What started as a normal day ended up being a strange and wonderful day.

We climbed Mount Baden-Powell straight from camp. The ascent was steep, but it was cool. There was snow on the ground! We didn’t expect to hit snow this far south. We also didn’t expect the mountains in this area to be so tall! Maybe it’s our ignorance or just general lack of knowledge, but LA County has some peaks above 9000′. We saw Los Angeles and its sprawl in the valleys far below.

We’ve been hiking with a TimTam for a couple days now, and it’s been nice to share the trail. Together, we amp ourselves up for big climbs, commiserate along the way, and celebrate our success at the top. With the snow and ice on the trail, it was also good to travel in a pack in the event we experienced a high consequence slip.

TimTam is also a pro photographer! He is carrying a travel camera and is super skilled at creating images of trail life on the fly, half the time without us noticing. He does so much more off-trail, too. You should check out his work! Instagram handle: @qphoto.media

After the summit, we experienced the tale as old as time: we descended. Along the way, an older couple who were turned around by the snow cheered for us like we were celebrities. They said “wow!” so many times as we answered their questions.

The three of us were dead set on getting to Wrightwood today. We moved fast and didn’t stop much other than to get some water at the 2nd slowest stream on the trail. We were even going to skip lunch in an effort to beeline it to town. We did stop, however, when we had enough service to arrange a place to stay in town. We’re still scarred by our experience in Bishop, where booking a room day-of was extremely expensive because of a big car show event. The three of us decided to split a cabin in town. It ended up being cheaper than any other hotel option and promised “fun pajamas.” We spent miles wondering what this might mean.

Just as we were going into a burnzone, we saw a trail magic sign. A former southbound hiker was camped at a picnic table with drinks and grapes and potato chips. Of course we had to stop! She had actually hiked some of the PCT just a few weeks ago and had been only a few miles from us at the time! She was planning to meet another hiker in Wrightwood later that day and thought to make a whole day of it with the trail magic. We were appreciative!

After departing, we picked up the pace even more. We were now racing sunset and aiming to maximize our town time. Some burnscars, logging, and blowdowns slowed us down a bit, but the motivation carried us.

We blazed down a sidetrail straight into town and walked through a neighborhood as it got dark. We almost felt like we were trick-or-treating.

The cabin was absolutely charming! When we got it, there was a sign welcoming us by the trailnames TimTam had bestowed upon us during our time together on trail. Jason is Glue, a reference to a superglue incident that cost him a sock and some skin earlier on trail. Alex is Stix, referring to her habit of rapidly flinging sticks off the trail with her poles while hiking as though preparing for a trail maintenance competition. TimTam’s name comes from his reputation for carrying a full-size package of Tim Tam cookies in his pack and, generously, sharing with other hikers. To be clear, this is not the only reason we enjoy hiking with TimTam.

There were also muffins! (Muffins not pictured – they were eaten too quickly…)

The host offered to do our laundry. Meanwhile, we could use the loaner clothes.  In the cabin was a basket of onesie pajamas. Whether the butt of a joke or not, we were assured that everyone uses the loaner onesies, even when walking around town! We played along when walked into town in search of the Mexican restaurant with a wonderful Tuesday special: nickel margaritas.

We could each only handle one marg and were beat by the end of the meal. Lumbering back to the cabin, we were excited to sleep. This section was a lot more challenging than we expected. Who knew there were mountains in the desert? I guess we could’ve done more research about the trail ahead of time, but where’s the fun in that? We like the element of surprise.