The big day had arrived. McDonald's!!!! Well, first things first. I woke up to discover that a raccoon had raided my food bag and eaten two days worth of granola. Oh well, I had extra food anyway. I cleaned up the mess and got everything together to head out. Despite an early wake up this morning, Noah managed to beat me out by about 30 minutes. I was only a few minutes ahead of Toby and Sprinkles, and they caught up to me when I had trouble finding the trail across the highway. We hiked together up through Little Horsethief Canyon, and then over down towards Cajon Pass. We were absolutely cranking as fast as we could, and there was definitely a good bit of anxiety to get there.
The worst mistake we made was right when we hit our first set of power lines. I looked at the map and said that there were power lines just 2 miles from the pass, but I didn’t think to look further back to realize there was also a set at 4 miles out. So as we started climbing again, we had the depressing realization that we had double the distance we originally thought. We also met Dan from Denver at that point, and he was doing the section up to Kennedy Meadows. We moved ahead and saw some pretty awesome vistas as we ridge-walked on the way down. There was also a really neat spot where I stopped to take a photo of Toby and Sprinkles where it looked like a scene straight out of the Sound of Music with the meadow of yellow flowers. As we dropped down to the canyon floor, we picked up an old road which appeared to have been once used for copper mining judging by the green deposits along the trail. The most amazing feeling came as we finally came around a bend into the pass, saw the highway, and then looked up to see the golden arches less than a half mile away. I practically skipped up there, and immediately ordered: a Big Mac, a jalapeno cheddar McChicken, a fruit and yogurt parfait, a sweet tea, a Rolo McFlurry, and a medium fries. This all went down right away, and the coolest part was that the calories were listed on the menu. I made it to 2450 on this first round, but was passed up by Noah’s 3000. We all walked across the bridge to Subway where we ordered footlongs for dinner, before coming back to McDonald’s for a chocolate milkshake. This brought my total up to 3200, and our group total topped 12,000 without counting the Subway. SUCCESS! Three hours later we rolled ourselves out the door and back onto the trail.
The PCT picked back up with a pair of long tunnels under the 10 lane highway, which were pretty neat. Apparently a number of hikers have camped here in inclement weather, but I would have trouble with that idea. On the other side, we came out into another section of hills, but first we had to cross the train tracks. We stood by and watched as seven locomotives pulled 130 cars past until we could carry on with our journey. We ran into a set of four hikers southbound from Wrightwood, where they had hitched from Cajon Pass in order to make it to the Post Office before the weekend. This group was Broken Toe, Detour, Orbit and Bonfire, but since they would be jumping back up to Wrightwood, we figured it would be a number of days before we caught up to them again. This was a big milestone though, as they were the first group of people that we had met who started at Kickoff. We came down into a cache, and ran into Aaron and Zeno. We officially gave Aaron his new trail name of “Plant”, and put down our Subway sandwiches. We wanted to put in a few more miles for the day, so we started the climb into the hills towards Mount Baden Powell. A kind lady informed us that there was no camping for 10 miles and it was all sheer cliffs, but that didn’t jive with what we’d seen on our maps. We walked ahead, and made about four miles before finding a nice flat area to sleep. This was Toby and Sprinkles’ first night sleeping out of the tent, so I’m curious how they’ll like it. Everyone else will be going in to Wrightwood tomorrow, but I’m passing it up, so that should help me pick up a few miles on everyone else and keep me close to my schedule.
Miles Today: 23
Trip Mileage: 350
The worst mistake we made was right when we hit our first set of power lines. I looked at the map and said that there were power lines just 2 miles from the pass, but I didn’t think to look further back to realize there was also a set at 4 miles out. So as we started climbing again, we had the depressing realization that we had double the distance we originally thought. We also met Dan from Denver at that point, and he was doing the section up to Kennedy Meadows. We moved ahead and saw some pretty awesome vistas as we ridge-walked on the way down. There was also a really neat spot where I stopped to take a photo of Toby and Sprinkles where it looked like a scene straight out of the Sound of Music with the meadow of yellow flowers. As we dropped down to the canyon floor, we picked up an old road which appeared to have been once used for copper mining judging by the green deposits along the trail. The most amazing feeling came as we finally came around a bend into the pass, saw the highway, and then looked up to see the golden arches less than a half mile away. I practically skipped up there, and immediately ordered: a Big Mac, a jalapeno cheddar McChicken, a fruit and yogurt parfait, a sweet tea, a Rolo McFlurry, and a medium fries. This all went down right away, and the coolest part was that the calories were listed on the menu. I made it to 2450 on this first round, but was passed up by Noah’s 3000. We all walked across the bridge to Subway where we ordered footlongs for dinner, before coming back to McDonald’s for a chocolate milkshake. This brought my total up to 3200, and our group total topped 12,000 without counting the Subway. SUCCESS! Three hours later we rolled ourselves out the door and back onto the trail.
The PCT picked back up with a pair of long tunnels under the 10 lane highway, which were pretty neat. Apparently a number of hikers have camped here in inclement weather, but I would have trouble with that idea. On the other side, we came out into another section of hills, but first we had to cross the train tracks. We stood by and watched as seven locomotives pulled 130 cars past until we could carry on with our journey. We ran into a set of four hikers southbound from Wrightwood, where they had hitched from Cajon Pass in order to make it to the Post Office before the weekend. This group was Broken Toe, Detour, Orbit and Bonfire, but since they would be jumping back up to Wrightwood, we figured it would be a number of days before we caught up to them again. This was a big milestone though, as they were the first group of people that we had met who started at Kickoff. We came down into a cache, and ran into Aaron and Zeno. We officially gave Aaron his new trail name of “Plant”, and put down our Subway sandwiches. We wanted to put in a few more miles for the day, so we started the climb into the hills towards Mount Baden Powell. A kind lady informed us that there was no camping for 10 miles and it was all sheer cliffs, but that didn’t jive with what we’d seen on our maps. We walked ahead, and made about four miles before finding a nice flat area to sleep. This was Toby and Sprinkles’ first night sleeping out of the tent, so I’m curious how they’ll like it. Everyone else will be going in to Wrightwood tomorrow, but I’m passing it up, so that should help me pick up a few miles on everyone else and keep me close to my schedule.
Miles Today: 23
Trip Mileage: 350
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