4/9 – 4/16
Leaving Little Bear Campground, we wound west through the San Bernardino mountains towards Deep Creek hot springs at mile 308.
My trail family had been doing between 15-20 miles per day because of the snow but we wanted to get to the hot spring that day and decided to go for it. It would be 23 miles total and we agreed not to take a sit down break until mile 300 to help us push through the day.
We had to cross through water a few times. I took my socks and shoes off for the first crossing because it sounded nice to walk through the cold water. By the second, I didn’t bother trying to balance on rocks or logs and just walked straight through.
I’ve spent a lot of days on trail with wet feet and it hasn’t been an issue yet. Trail runners don’t hold that much water.
We eventually got to the upper portion of Deep Creek. The water was very cold and was mostly snow melt but it had a dirty hue to it for some reason. It tasted fine to me!
I got to walk along the creek for miles and it was such a beautiful stretch. The hot springs were still a bit further.
Mile 300! Meals with a trail family can include a constant exchange of snacks, seasonings, sauces, bites, and slices of random things that come together into weird combinations. We’ve only had one bad creation (Nick’s stew with added pesto, mustard, hot sauce, seasoning, and gold fish crackers)
This meal was a solid effort. We finally ate the 15oz bag of refried beans that Nick had been carrying for 90 miles. Pete had an avocado and takis, I had crispy onions and bacon, and we all had left over hot sauce from Jack in the Box. We were primed and refuelled for 7 more miles in the day.
We made it to the hot springs with plenty of daylight to spare. I got there first and there was a bit if a strange crowd because its accessible to day hikers and is clothing optional. Once they hiked out in the evening, it was our place to claim.
We did some laundry first so it could dry in the sun and then enjoyed the hot spring. It was the perfect hot tub temperature and great for sore muscles. We were lucky that it was a warm day and I didn’t get cold at all while drying off (I don’t have a towel on trail).
Unfortunately, a hiker told me that the Germans had already left that afternoon. We were hoping to catch up to them after having such a good time together in Big Bear:/
After dinner, we set up camp along the bank. A few of us planned to cowboy camp again that night because we had heard that the squirrels at the spring would chew through tents to get food. They had chewed a hole in other tall Luke’s backpack the day before.
Some of us went in the spring again at night. I was on the fence but felt like I should enjoy it while it was there.
The night was winding down and I was ready to dry off, but a group of headlamps came out of the dark to join us. It was the Germans (Louanne, Lily, Lukas, Julius)! We were so glad to see them and stayed in the spring a while longer with them. It turns out they had not left Deep Creek and were only camping down the bank to get away from the sauirrels!
The next morning, Nash made pour over coffee for everybody and we lingered a bit before leaving. Nash has so many random pieces of gear that people call him Walmart. He has a guitar, a chair, supplies for smores, a pound of coffee, and so much more. I couldn’t believe how heavy his pack was. His actual trail name is Forest because he was always running to keep up with the Germans and he is an arborist.
The Germans are known for getting up at 6am sharp so they must have liked us at least a little to break their schedule and hang out that morning.
Off we were to our next destination – 18 miles to Silverwood Lake. Rumor had it you could order pizza to the campground there.
After getting out of the canyon, I could see ahead to the San Gabriel mountains! This would be the next challenge to tackle. I was excited because the LA mountains are where I started to branch out and hike bigger trails a handful of years ago.
We crossed Deep Creek one last time. I put my sleeping quilt and electronics in a dry bag within my backpack and crossed the waist deep water. There were lots of water sources in the next 15 miles that allowed me to forget about how many liters to carry.
After hundreds of miles, I finally used my umbrella to give me some shade. Its a piece of gear that people either hate or love and I’d probably have liked it more if I hiked during a warmer period but it hasn’t been the most necessary.
I thought Silverwood Lake would be underwhelming because the miles approaching it were gravelly and brown and the lake was nowhere in sight. After coming up and over a hill, the lake appeared all at once before us. Not too shabby!
After 18 miles, we realized we had read the map wrong and it was actually 2.5 miles further to the campground. Some of us decided it was worth it to hike further for a chance at ordering pizza while the Germans stayed back.
We hiked the rest of the way and were especially tired that day. Turns out the restaurant in the nearest town only delivered on weekends. We could have fact checked this earlier but it was good motivation whether it panned out or not.
Ivy, Nick, Pete, and I set up our camp and began filtering water. The campground was pretty empty but one of the few other campers told Ivy and Nick that he saw a bear the night before.
I thought it might sneak around while we were sleeping but that bear showed up quickly while we were making our dinners at a camp table. Emma and Shaw decided to move their scented things under a bench in the camp shower so we followed suit and gathered our food and toiletries.
I heard some defensive yells from people throughout the evening as the bear pestered different sites around the campground. I woke up to its snout sniffing and lifting my tent door but it got startled as I sat up and I watched until it left our camp. Too tired to worry, I slept great that night.
In the morning, I learned that Emma’s backpack was snatched by the bear from her tent’s zipped up vestibule. She got it back and then they packed up camp and slept in the shower!
Leaving Silverwood Lake, we pushed through 14 miles to Mcdonalds in Cajon Pass. After 4 full days of backpack food since Big Bear, it was a huge motivation to get there.
I listened to a podcast and a sermon and did not pause walking except to look at two rattlesnakes I found (finally!). I had walked ahead of my group with the hope of some snakes sightings since the weather was warm.
I made it to Mcdonalds just after 12pm. Other hikers began to show up and we all made multiple orders and rested to escape the midday heat. The plan was to make it only 5 more miles before night which would be more enjoyable if we waited until the day cooled down.
That waiting turned into FIVE hours. It felt like a long layover in an airport. I ordered a lot of food while I was there and left with some burgers to do the “McDonalds challenge” which is where you only eat McDoubles until the next stop. Wrightwood was only 20 miles ahead so it was hardly a challenge.
The last five miles to the campground were beautiful and we watched the sun settle over the mountains. The evening was comfortably warm and bright and we chatted with the Germans most of the way.
We were 19 miles down for the day but I had a dilemma to figure out before I went to bed.
There was a storm coming in 2 days. AGAIN. A fourth weekend on trail with a fourth storm. I had stayed in town during the last three but I really wanted to make it close to home by April 16th. I still had over a hundred miles to go in the next 5 days and I would be flying out on the 17th for my brother’s wedding.
My trail family was going to stay in Wrightwood and take a zero during the storm but I decided I needed to press on and summit Mount Baden Powell the next day.
I would need to cover close to 40 miles by the next night. Oof.
Even after 19 miles, Nick, Pete, and Ivy were down to night hike with me to get to Wrightwood first thing in the morning!
The night miles were really enjoyable at the start because it was a new experience and we were energized from the long midday break. We talked and played 20 Questions to keep our energy up and were grateful not to do all of the steep miles in the sun. I saw a few bats flying and a toad!
Eventually, we tired of games and any talking only made it clearer that we were exhausted so we pressed on quietly.
After 10 night miles, we only had a road walk left to make it into Wrightwood. That ended up being another 7 miles that were straight and forever uphill. It was punishing but we stopped at 1am and threw our beds down in a patch of dirt in full sight of the highway. I slept so so well. We call 9pm “hiker midnight” so being up until 1am felt delusionally late.
We had hiked somewhere around 32 miles that day, and it was mostly uphill for the last 18. Nick had to take ibuprofen to ignore his blisters (his whole heel was shot), and Ivy developed some new blisters on her heel and tore part of her shoe.
I’m so grateful they went the extra miles with me that night. It was the only way I could have a shot at getting close to home, but Ivy, Nick, and Pete had no reason to lose sleep that night. They were going to take a zero in Wrightwood anyway and did not need to rush.
A woman named Shannon gave us a hitch when we were walking in town and drove us to a diner. Just like many other drivers before, she makes you fall in love with the small mountain towns.
She drives people because she had a friend who did the Appalachian Trail and the PCT and she was grateful for all the hikers that took care of her friend. She moved from a busy city up to Wrightwood and now sells soaps and makes watercolors. She loves the small town life.
After a week and a half of hiking with a trail family, I hugged them goodbye in front of a grocery store and had left Nash and Travis back at the campground. The only thing that made it easier to part ways was that some of them had to get off trail in the next few weeks. I would have loved to spend just one last full day in town together.
I have my fingers crossed that we’ll find eachother later down the trail!
The next week on trail was full of big highs and lows. After leaving my trail family, I realized that hiking alone exaggerates all trail experiences for me. Seeing something beautiful when I’m alone makes it more precious, but discomfort on trail without other hikers feels more consuming.
I walked up out of Wrightwood by myself and planned to rejoin the trail at the bottom of Mount Baden Powell.
I got a full view of the mountain and boy did I feel intimidated. A lot of hikers were skipping it altogether but for no discernable reason except convenience. I didn’t want to make a habit of skipping trail but I was still not sure if it was wise to solo hike.
I was nervous because I didn’t get to the base of the mountain until 3pm and a southbound hiker (opposite direction) had just told me I should wait until morning to summit the mountain because of the snow.
I prepped some snacks to keep on hand, put my microspikes on my hip belt (Han’s recommendation), and moved all my warm layers to the top of my bag. If I was going to go for it, I would have little time for breaks.
I needed my microspikes immediately. After attempting to follow the switchbacks, I decided it felt safer to go straight uphill and make my own trail. I used my ice axe for the first time and felt very stable with it in one hand and a trekking pole in the other.
The snow was so steep that I had my knees pressed against it with each step and my axe and pole sunk all the way in. I was crawling on all fours.
.
I was so relieved to have had an easy time going up the snow. I was expecting it to be hard and frustrating but I was loving it instead!
I postholed a lot and it was exhausting but something about being up there alone without issues made my nerves melt away. I felt so much safer on steep snowy slopes than I did just a week before.
I hate to admit that I teared up a bit out of joy when I paused to look at the view above.
It was an immediate mindset shift from trying to plan and be safe to realizing that it was totally fine. I saw the mountains near home, and
I was a little nervous about the fourth storm on trail since I had spent the last three indoors but after so many days in town, I felt like I needed to push through this one and not get stuck in Wrightwood when I needed to get off trail four days out.
I really don’t mind hiking sections alone, but I just wanted to be sure there were some other hikers out there, making the same decisions as me
Sing Mount Powell was threatening. The snow looks so deep and it was already 1 PM when I got to point I needed to get ready if this is gonna be possible so I use the camp bathroom changed into much warmer layers and prepared others on top of my pack,and some snacks where I could access them without stopping hydrated and add lights to my water. It was time for quite a climb, but I was optimistic because I needed to be.
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