12 | April | 2017 | Modern Gypsy Tales

(Lacy)

Today was a hard day on trail. We began at 8am and continued to go straight up almost the entire day. We were lower on water than we should have been, knowing there wasn’t any source for the next 13 miles until we reached Wrightwood. The combination of rationing our water and the continued uphill made the miles harder. We kept pushing because we wanted to get done before the heat of the day. Turns out none of that mattered because 3.5 miles before we arrived at the road to hitch a ride, we hit a lot of snow on the north face of the mountain. This was more than we have ever encountered. It was very icy too. It took us over 2 hours to do those miles when it could have easily been done in 1. We both fell twice and slid down the mountainside in the snow. It’s a little scary and we agreed that we are not going to do that again without snow gear. The first time I fell, I saw myself going towards a tree as I slid down so I stuck out my heel and caught myself before I slid further. Or nailed it on the tree. Rob and I both managed to loose our footing on different areas and fall at the same time then.

Even a hard day is still wonderful when you have views of layers and layers of mountains like these ❤️

By the time we got to the end of the trail for the day we were both exhausted mentally and physically. It was one of our most taxing days because of the lack of water and then the intensity of going through the snow. Thankfully for us we knew we were heading straight for food…oh yes, more food!

All we had eaten by 3:15 was a power bar each and some beef jerky. We hitched another ride into town in the back of a pickup and went straight to Mexico Lindo. We ran back into Galpal, Woodrat and Rockdoc who were enjoying the 5 cent margarita you can get at this place on Tuesdays with the purchase of food. They were really good and so were the fajitas. Great spot.

With full bellies, we walked the short distance to the trail angels house where we had arranged to stay. Wrightwood is pretty small so the 7 minute walk took us by the grocery store, hardware store (where we plan on going tomorrow to sign the trail register and get a PCT pin😊) and post office. That’s everything we need right there.

This is the first time that we have stayed with a trail angel and we were so pleased we did. Rich, who hosted us, could not have been more generous and kind. Just genuinely a nice guy. He has opened his home to hikers this year and last and hopes to hike some of the trail next year. I hope that we will still be in touch and can join him. After an enjoyable evening chatting over some cake Rob and I brought, we all crashed. It was nice to snuggle up in a bed tonight.

(Lacy) I thought today was BEAUTIFUL and have lots of photos to share 😊)

(Rob)

The Best Western served up a decent breakfast to get us started in the morning. I don’t think I’ve eaten so much food in a 24 hour period that I can remember but I’m still losing weight overall. We got rolling into the day’s hike a little later than normal with the first leg taking us under the I-15 freeway and through several Freight Train crossings and another tunnel.

I stepped in a lot of mud first thing 🙄

We went up and over several big sandy hills before starting the big climb of the day. We started up at about mile 3 and never had a step down. We would gain 4000 ft of the 7000 ft to Wrightwood before the day was over. At the base of the mountain there was a Hiker Register Book in a steel box.

Hiker registry

Hiker registry inside

On water cache – good info!

Water cache! Yes!

We signed in and noticed several familiar names that we knew. There were 3 names in front of us on the register that we met on Day 2 who were now 10 days ahead of us. With the exception of those 2 guys n 3 girls we are near the front of our start date grouping. Several of our hiker friends and acquaintances have fallen back or dropped out all together. We spent a few miles, 351-354, going through a very recent fire zone. Lots of soot. Too much to even walk 30-40 ft behind someone and not breathe it in. Heartbreaking for me to see the land so stripped of life but also dangerous. The soot itself and the fact that even little rains had washed so much sand and gravel tailings across steep parts of the trail that we were slipping and sliding across the trail with several hundred feet of nothing on one side of us if we made a misstep. In camp I also compromised our water situation by knocking over our stove full of rehydrated meat and dirty rice while it was cooking. More than 1/2 our dinner now lay on the ground but I’d also wasted valuable water. We were both carrying 9 lbs of water which was going to barely make it the two days before we reached Wrightwood. We would start the morning in heavy water ration mode. As we went to sleep we saw the lights of the LA Basin for the first time…still many, many miles away.