6/11/2023
Section: Mile post 341.9 to 356.7
Distance: 15.36 Miles
Moving Time: 06:36 hrs
Elevation Gain: 3,981 ft
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Today’s stage lies entirely in the San Bernardino National Forest as it makes its way west toward Baden-Powel, Big Pines and Wrightwood. The day was unexpectedly short. As I mentioned before, the program I had written to design our itinerary converted every 1000 feet of elevation gain into a mile and added it to the mileage planned for a day. This means that, on the days where there is a lot of elevation gain the intended mileage will be shorter to compensate for going up. Today, my program had recognized approximately 6000 feet of elevation gain and reduced the mileage to compensate but, in reality, we only went up 4000 feet. Not sure what happened there but, looking ahead, it appears to be an anomaly. In any case, it made for a lighter day which is a good thing to have every once in awhile when you are walking 2700 miles.
We woke up on a mattress, which is something I have not appreciated as much in my life as I do now. The downside to the hotel though, aside from the fact that it looks like a drug front, was that a white light was on all night right in front of the window. Amanda and I woke many times, separately, thinking it was already 9 am because that light mimicked daylight so well. I’m not really sure, in the end, we sleep any better than we would have on the trail. After waking up I ate some grits and Amanda had the other half of her subway sandwich. When we were all fed and packed we gathered our things, turned in the keycard and headed for the highway. We considered “frogger-ing” our way back to McDonalds and making our way under the highway but instead took a right and went further out of town before descending an access road which paralleled the many railroad tracks back towards the trail. Side note about Cajon Pass - BNSF moves a MASSIVE amount of rail though here, it’s insane. Sitting at the McDonalds yesterday for an hour we saw probably 10 long trains go by and all night last night it was just constant trains. Thinking it must be one of the main arteries out of LA.
We walked along the gravel road for about half an hour before it ran across the PCT on the west side of I-15 and from there we started climbing. The trail wound through some really cool rock formations that looked more at home in southern Utah before returning to the classic Southern California desert scrub we were used to. All morning we wound up higher into the mountains. An occasional look back left a devastating feeling of closeness to the highway despite all the walking that had been done. About 2 hours in, the trail turned northwest and maintained its elevation as a mile wide valley further west rose to that elevation. We eventually turned west directly into the valley where we ran across the first water cache between Cajon and highway 2. This section is another dry section requiring trail Angeles to fill water caches so we can make it and we were so thankful to find this one full. Here we ran back into Eva and Kayla who were just filling up. We asked them about their night and talked for a while. Amanda and I ate some of our saltier snacks and then drank a ton of water before refilling and the Ontario girls carried on.
After the water cache we crossed the rest of the valley and continued our climb. I should note that almost all day was climbing, just not 6000 feet of climbing as expected. We carried on, the trail making dramatic switchbacks up the shrubby hillside. At one point we stopped to examine some strange fruit looking shapes growing on some of the trees. We thought they might be some sort of large berry but on closer inspection Amanda thought they might actually be blights on the tree. Further on we took a short break for a photo shoot which Amanda wanted to feature in a reel she was working on (stay tuned!) before we continued our slog uphill.
The trail eventually crested the lower, eastern end of Upper Lytle Creek Ridge. Towards the top it crossed a gravel road which it would then parallel for this and tomorrow's stage. On the road Eva and Kayla were eating a hot lunch. We took a quick break and chatted with them before carrying on. Now on the ridge, the trail followed on the northern side as it rose upwards. We climbed through an old fire section, new growth already greening up the hillsides and crisscrossing the road in places. Eventually we saw Gobbler’s Knob come into view. Our campsite was located on the far side so we picked up our pace and another 15 minutes brought us to a 3 tent pad campsite. We surveyed and picked a flat spot off the trail. It was 3 pm and we made ourselves busy putting the tent up and getting things set up. Afterwards I took a nap and the Ontario girls showed up. We had a late afternoon reading session and around 6 made dinner as a little group and then be talked for an hour or so. We learned that Eva and Kayla had just graduated from college and were doing this trail before starting work which we thought was awesome.
Afterwards we all retired to our tents. It was cooling down and we all wanted to read. Great to be back on the trail and not have a bright white light shining in on my face!
