Week 5: Silverwood Lake to Pacifico Mountain

Day 29

14 miles

Today was a very hot (high 80s, low 90s) day near Cajon Pass with lots of switchbacks, a flat area, and then a very windy climb down to the highway. The trail was quite narrow at times with a steep drop off on both sides.

The trail went right next to the recently burned area and we could see the bright pink area that was hit by the slurry bombs.

The light at the end of the tunnel today was, and I never thought I'd say this, a McDonald's on the highway in Cajon Pass.

When we walked in to the McDonalds we were blown away by the number of hikers in booths with their big packs and trekking poles. There were easily more than 20 hikers there "fresh" off of the trail.

I was sitting in the first booth where I could see everyone that walked in. They were either hikers or tourists. One older tourist walked in and upon seeing (and smelling) all of the hikers let out an audible "Oof!"

Easy had a funny moment at the McDonald's cash register when he forgot that his fly was down (he's most comfortable hiking on hot days with his fly unzipped, while wearing his nice Patagonia underpants of course). The young woman working the register pointed it out to him before taking his order. It wasn't until he realized that she wouldn't actually type in his order that he zipped up. This really made me giggle. There are so many little choices that make sense while hiking that don't exactly "translate" to the real world.

We got a room at the Best Western and had a delightful visit from Easy’s friend Will. He brought us a fuel canister and delicious Italian subs from a deli in Santa Monica. It tasted so good to have real food that wasn't one of our frequent snack items. With no fuel we had been relying on snacks and candy bars at night instead of hot dinners. Thank you so much Will!

Day 30

Nearo / 5+ miles

We took advantage of the hotel stay and slept in a bit. The continental breakfast wasn't anything to write home about but free coffee is always welcomed. We asked about a late checkout and took our time getting everything packed up.

We went to the nearby Del Taco for lunch and then went to Subway for sandwiches to take with us for dinner. The woman at Subway was very sweet and offered not only sauce packets to bring along but also filled up all of our water bottles.

It was new for us to start hiking in the afternoon but I enjoyed the early evening light. This stretch was very hilly and pretty. It was fun to get up on the top of the hillside where we could see all of the trains passing through. We came across a surprise water cache full of water and with a trash can to offload our garbage. There were a few nice spots to camp by the cache and we ended up stopping here. We met a new friend named Andrew who camped nearby.

A very sweet trail angel couple delivered water to the cache and gave us a kiwi strawberry Snapple and a fruit punch Gatorade. I mentioned that my ankle had been hurting. They said if my ankle was hurting too bad and if we "felt like cheating," we could just walk up the nearby road and any local that drives by would happily drive us into Wrightwood.

Day 31

The alarm went off at 5am and Easy asked how my ankle was feeling. I ventured out to the "restroom" (AKA outside) to test it out. My ankle and calf felt stiff and sore. When I told Easy, he said it just didn't seem like a good idea to try to hike the last section to Wrightwood (a steep climb that goes up 5,000 feet in elevation).

I was frustrated about not the prospect of not hiking today but I knew it was the right move to not push it. If we wanted to keep going on the hike it's important that I'm smart about our bodies this early on. I also felt bad because I know Easy’s been feeling good and wanted to hike. And, we're a team - we need to do what's best for our team.

We got a quick hitch into Wrightwood with a Dad getting off of his night shift at a hospital in Orange County. He was super nice and grew up in Portland!

We went to the Pines Motel to get a room for the next few nights. All of the weather reports are predicting snow for Sunday and a few days off of my ankle will be great.

I mentioned to the Motel manager that I needed to get a massage for my legs. She has a friend who is a massage therapist and was happy to contact her on my behalf.

We went to breakfast at The Grizzly Bear - delicious!! And they had mimosas! Next up was a post office run - we ran into many other hikers at the post office. It's funny how recognizable we are (down jackets, crocs, dirty, stinky, disheveled and smiling). I overheard a group of local women guessing which country's flag was safety pinned to the back of one hiker's pack. Some ideas included Canada (?!) and Switzerland. I had to hold back my giggles when he turned around and said "Denmark" with a smile.

We found a fun local bar (The Yodeler) where Easy could watch the NY Mets play baseball. We ate dinner there and had a couple of beers. Coincidentally, the trail angel couple we met the night before showed up for dinner and beers too! And they were eating with our friends from Switzerland, Michelle and Beat.

We popped by the gas station to see if they had any hair ties. I couldn't believe it when the woman working the cash register took the hair tie off of her wrist and handed it to me. What generosity! And she offered us free hot dogs (something they do for every PCT hiker that pops in). Wrightwood is by far the friendliest trail town we've visited so far.

Day 32

Another zero mile day!

We went to breakfast at the Evergreen Cafe. We sat at the counter, which gave us unique insight into the operations. Someone had called in sick at 7:30am. We were theorizing that it may have had something to do with Cinco de Mayo the night before but it's hard to be sure. We also noticed a "help wanted" sign on the door not long after our breakfast.

I had my massage scheduled for 10am. I felt kind of strange about it because I hadn't talked to the massage therapist yet - all of the coordination happened through our Motel Manager. The massage therapist was coming to our motel room for the appointment. I was hoping she'd bring her own massage table but I wasn't positive. The motel bed seemed to be so low and awkward - I thought there was no way she (or I) could make that work.

Cecilia the massage therapist showed up with her massage table. She was so wonderful and it was a real treat just to meet her. She immigrated to the US from Taiwan and has lived in Wrightwood for 17 years.

Cecilia had in me in tears twice on her massage table. The first time was because my calves were so tight when she was working out the kinks. I was squirming and almost whimpering at one point. It makes sense that my ankles have been hurting with such ridiculously tight calves. The second thing that made me cry was hearing about the magic that happened when she adopted her two children. She shared such a beautiful story with me. She also shared that it was her birthday about 2/3 into the massage. I was so honored that she took my appointment on her birthday and gave me such a terrific massage. I felt so grateful to have gotten to meet her.

Since I decided to treat myself today, I had also set up a pedicure with a woman who owns a spa and lodging business north of town (Novel). She agreed to pick me up at the hardware store for the appointment. Novel does it all! She runs a B&B, lets hikers stay with her, sells jewelry, and happily gives hikers rides. When we got to her house, there was a group of hikers heading to the trail (including another "Easy" from England). Novel offered me some tea before the pedicure and I sat on the couch. All of a sudden, an animal came out of the kitchen, right near my feet, and much to my surprise it was a potbelly pig (named "Kaliki")! I was so surprised!!

Novel got my feet soaking in a foot bath and then left to drive a group of hikers to the trail. I was slightly worried for them because the weather report said snow was coming. Hopefully they had lots of warm clothing!

Novel was very sweet and it was a treat to get a pedicure. I giggled inside when she used toothpicks to clean under my nails because that's what I had been using on my "tent manicures!" She said she wasn't sure where her little tool was that she normally used.

After the pedicure I was worried that I'd have to hitch back into town and run the risk of ruining the new sage colored toe polish. Luckily there was a guy in a van driving Novel's sister into town and they gave me a ride too. It was just starting to rain as I got in the van.

We went to the Mexican restaurant for lunch and then lounged around a bit in the motel room. We had heard great things about karaoke at the Wrightwood Inn, so tonight was the night! By then it had started to snow big flakes in town. That didn't get in the way of our karaoke night, we walked over and showed up to an empty bar around 8pm. The bartender / owner mentioned that they had quite the daytime crowd for the Kentucky Derby that afternoon. Soon enough the woman who ran the karaoke and some locals started to trickle in. Both women had an affinity for PCT hikers and were very friendly to us.

I sang Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made for Walking" to kickoff the night. I also sang Patsy Cline's "Crazy" and The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams." We sang our duet, The Human League's "Don't You Want Me." Easy didn't feel like singing any solo songs but was happy to cheer me on. I was having such a blast being around the locals, listening to and singing along to tons of great songs. It was one local guy's birthday and we even got a slice of coconut cake!

Towards the end of the night, two transgender women came in and signed up to sing. I was impressed by their bravery to get up in front of a bar full of what seemed to me like fairly conservative straight folks. I found myself feeling surprised that there didn't seem to be too much of a response from the other patrons. Perhaps they were regulars on karaoke night. It made me think about how much privilege I carry with me every day to be able to walk into the women's bathroom without a second thought or to sign up to sing in front of a bar full of strangers and not worry about how all of the attention has the potential to be very unsafe for me. I was wrong to assume the level of openness this bar / community might have. There's a part of me that feels very "on watch" for injustices and sometimes it's not helpful. As a white person in a heterosexual relationship with many privileges, something I perceive as possibly unsafe may be a tension that someone in a marginalized group feels all the time. My noticing what could be an unsafe dynamic is only that. Sometimes I need to remind myself that looking for injustice doesn't make me an ally. It could help, but if I'm not seen as a safe ally by the person who may need one in that moment, I'm not an ally. They get to decide - not me.

Two different locals asked us if we had a place to stay. Everyone was very welcoming to us.

Day 33

Zero miles!

We went back to the Grizzly Cafe for Breakfast with three Swiss friends - Michelle, Beat and Michael. They were laughing about how big the American breakfasts are. They said breakfast at home is usually a piece of bread and a coffee.

After breakfast, we spent time being lazy in our motel room, and then I met up with our Swiss friends and a few other hikers back at the Yodeler in the afternoon. Easy opted to stay in the hotel room and keep on being lazy. I met Randy from Kentucky, Skipper from Salem, Oregon and Salty Dog from an island off the Carolinas. We had beers and appetizers, and noticed that our bartender was one of the karaoke singers from the night before. I don't think he remembered me though. It was fun to teach some of the Swiss folks the words for different things - I explained the difference between cheeks on the face and cheeks on the rear as well as what a "muffintop" is. Beat was making me laugh trying to remember the word for "prescription." When I repeated it after me, he did his best slow American accent ("per-scrip-tion").

We picked up pizza and ate in bed - what a treat!

Day 34

3 miles // "nearo"

I went to the coffee shop to work on the previous week's blog - there were many locals catching up there.

This motel stay made me realize we do best when we have access to three very important lodging components: we need a good tub, wifi, and laundry. This motel didn't have any of these and it made "catching up" somewhat difficult.

We ran our errands to the post office and the grocery store and got ready to head out of town. We got a ride to Inspiration Point from a woman who knew Cecilia! Our driver was grateful that I reminded her to set up an appointment.

We hiked a few miles to a campsite to set up camp for the night. The ol' right ankle wasn't feeling as good as I'd hoped. I figured all the rest and the massage would work wonders. Looks like I was too hopeful for a fast recovery.

We ate beef stew and ramen for dinner and all of our food went into the Bear boxes at night. Andrew was our neighbor camper again tonight. We had a very early bed time around 6:30pm - we split an Advil pm and called it a night.

Day 35

13 miles

This morning we were up around 6am.

We hiked down to the trail entrance to Mount Baden-Powell and saw Salty Dog almost right after we got there. He smoked a cigarette and was ready to rock.

Hiking uphill felt pretty good on the ankle. We stopped to rest on a bench at the end of a switchback overlooking the valley. Salty Dog snapped a picture on his cell phone then got up and said "this mountain ain't gonna climb itself!" He carried on while we continued resting.

The last 1/3 of the trail was very snowy and I was wishing we would've had microspikes. It was pretty slippery! We did the extra 0.1 mile for the Mount Baden-Powell summit.

It was a gorgeous view up there and perfect for our lunch break. The afternoon was tricky to find the trail in some parts. I also don't think I drank enough water and my legs were getting stiff. The ankle hurting on the downhill didn't help. There were lots of low clouds that almost looked like fog. We were worried that it might pour on us at any moment. It only rained small drops on us twice, but nothing major.

The sign to the campground lied to us and said 1.6 miles when it was really over 3 miles. Argggg. That one really bummed me out.

We camped at Little Jimmy campground with many other hikers. There were bear warning signs at the campground and warnings in our book. There weren't any bear boxes though so we're having to sleep with our food. I thought about trying to rig something in trash bags and stuff the food into a stove, but it was way closer to other hikers - it seemed like an inconsiderate move. It's certainly not ideal to sleep with the food in the tent but our options were pretty limited. Here's hoping the other hikers have more delicious smelling food in their tents...!