6/12/2023
Section: Mile post 356.7 to 369.3
Distance: 12.46 Miles
Moving Time: 05:06 hrs
Elevation Gain: 2,720 ft
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Today’s stage crosses out of the San Bernardino Wilderness and into the Angels Wilderness, traveling in a northwestern direction the entire day. I had intended to go farther today but landslides on highway 2 made it impossible to get a hitch where we had intended so we cut it short and caught a ride to Wrightwood for the night. Thinking we are going to do a NERO day in Wrightwood.
Amanda and I woke around 5:30 with the light and the birds. We could hear the Ontario girls stirring and starting to pack up their site so I flipped the valve on my Thermarest counter-clockwise to start the morning's activities. We were on the trail around 7 am, hiking upwards…and upwards…and upwards. Most of the climbing was consolidated to the first half of the day which, at least, meant that we were doing it in the cool of the day. We played hopscotch with the Ontario girls for a bit but eventually went on ahead. The trail transitioned from scrubby desert to large pines which we both appreciated.
Eventually we reached the turn-off for the access trail to Wrightwood. Here, you could descend a couple thousand feet directly to Wrightwood but this would put our day at ~5 miles and we wanted to get a bit more in before we took our NERO day. Plus, the climb back out of Wrightwood would not be as nice as getting a ride back to where we left off, so we kept going. We took a break here. I have found now that I am pretty much always hungry and can’t go too long without food. I had heard of hiker hunger but now was starting to experience it first hand - it’s pretty brutal. I’m starting to look at my food bag now like - “I think I could eat this whole thing in one sitting.”
We carried on from the junction and not far on we crossed our first water source in about 17 miles - a freshwater spring 500 feet below the trail. The nice part was that it was near a car camp with bathrooms and picnic tables. As we walked by, l looked at a backpack lying in the trail, clearly left by a hiker who had gone down to the spring to resupply on water. On the front was a logo for chicken feed which suggested that the owner had made the backpack out of a chicken feed bag. Amanda and I looked at each other in wonder before going on up the trail. Amanda chilled at a picnic table while I descended down with water bladders and the new filter. On the way down I met up with the guy with the chicken backpack and asked if I could take a picture of his backpack, which he gladly said yes too. He told me he had made the backpack and his own clothing, which was awesome. I reached the spring and located a clear stream of water coming out of a 2 inch pipe in the ground. I set up and started pumping while watching some red mohawked birds take baths in the effluent coming off the spring. I looked them up later but couldn’t identify them. After cleaning a couple liters I headed back up the trail and rejoined Amanda. We had a few more snacks and then headed on. Amanda was devastated that a family who had been packing up their RV had not offered her any snacks.
We maxed out our elevation a short distance more up the trail and then continued on through a few small “Camel Humps” in elevation. Looking down below we could see Big Pines and shortly down the trail we came upon the east side of Mountain High resort. Amanda stopped and took some pictures of the ski run names and we continued on. We passed by two large ponds with “No Trespassing” signs before descending towards highway 2.
We wound down to the highway and crossed the road where we took a quick break. From here we intended to carry on down the trail another 5 miles but I took a quick look at CalDOT before doing so. The worry I had was that the road could be closed a few miles down the road, in which case, no cars would be able to come up the road to get us. A few seconds of research showed that, indeed, the road was closed only a few miles ahead of the trailhead. This killed any plans we had for moving on so we started looking for a ride. A few minutes later Dale, who we had read about in the FarOut forums, showed up with some through hikers and said he would give us a ride. As he made the U-turn, the chicken bag backpack guy showed up and occupied the 4th seat as we headed down. Dale was wearing a Pivot Bikes hat so I struck up a conversation about mountain biking on the local slopes as we rode down.
Dale dropped us off at the hardware store where there were already about 10 hikers recharging their devices. We chilled until Amanda found us an accommodation for the night and then we took off. A 5 minute walk brought us to the hotel where we dropped our things and took much needed showers. Afterwards we went and got some lunch, grabbed some post cards and returned to the hotel to do some laundry. The hotel had these adorable miniature washing machines that could do about 10-12 items of clothing - just to get our clothes cleaned. Later that night we chilled at a local brewery where we filled out the cards and enjoyed some local brew before joining some of the ride brides at the local pizza place. Excellent end to a great day on the trail.
