Week 14: Agua Dolce to Wrightwood to Big Bear

The morning after we left Agua Dolce, we hiked to the KOA to replenish our water, and then up a steep climb to a forest ranger station to the next water cache. This section of the trail was damaged by fire in 2016 and is closed to the public - apparently thru-hikers are exempt from this closure. The resident ranger maintains a water cache for PCT hikers daily and he was very nice to chat with, and showed us how to identify Poodle Dog Bush, a plant that has fuzzy leaves and purple flowers that is dangerous to touch. Poodle Dog Bush, or PDB, as we've nicknamed it, has infested sections of the trail near here, to the point where a dirt road alternate was proposed. We took the trail and were careful to avoid the strange looking plant. However, our legs are not safe from the many other prickly plants of the desert!

We hiked until the Milk Creek Fire Station where the next available water was - this source was a spigot that had been tested positive for e.coli. In the desert, you take what you can get. As a wise woman once said: Filter that water, my friends!

"Urban" is the nicest word I can use to describe this campsite view at the fire station...

I'm not going to say the trail is ugly at times...

Vinny's sock liners looking a little worse for the wear...

The next day we hiked 28 miles to the Rooster Crest Campsite. The trail was closed due to an endangered species rehabilitation zone (those dang frogs), so the trail incorporated a road walk along the dangerous, yet beautiful, Highway 2. We've left behind the majority of desert scenery for familiar Los Angeles-type forestry, which is a nice change of pace.

Highway 2 might mean a lot of climbing, but we are getting some views again!

The campsite was very nice and we all decided to cowboy camp on top of picnic tables. I've gotten so tired of setting up our tent on the less than ideal desert ground that I welcomed the idea of just sleeping in my sleeping bag on an actual flat surface.

The next day we climbed up Mt Baden Powell and took the alternate to the summit. The views were amazing! We only had a few more miles until the point where you hitch into Wrightwood, and we got in for lunch at the adorable Evergreen Cafe.

After our burgers we checked out the hardware store which we heard was super friendly to hikers - and they were. Dave made us feel welcome, showed us his stats that he kept of past hikers from his log book, and gave us a list of trail angels to contact. He recommended strongly against staying at the Bud Pharm outside of town, (which we thought would be, at the least, an interesting story) so we heeded his advice and called some angels looking for a place to stay.

Sabine checked out the yarn store and got this gift for being a PCT hiker.

Trail Angel Jeff picked us up from the hardware store and kindly let us launder, shower and sleep at his house. He also had three adorable pups to play with!

The next morning we stopped at the bakery before grabbing breakfast (as hikers do) and I inhaled a delicious guava and cream turnover and packed out a cream cheese muffin for the trail. Back at Evergreen Cafe, we all ordered breakfast burritos and actually could not finish them - they'd make a good lunch on the trail.

These dead cacti looked like pineapples to me.

We hiked out 22 miles to a water cache after stopping to enjoy our treats for lunch. The next morning we skipped breakfast because we were only 5 miles out from the McDonalds at Cajon Pass!

The trail went under the train tracks here.

When we woke up in the morning, the air felt very humid and cold. There were clouds hovering around the mountains and our climb into Cajon was eerie and felt almost like Washington weather.

Yes, I hiked the PCT to enjoy all of the beautiful natural scenery...

If we will walk 0.3 miles off trail for a water source, of course we will walk 0.4 miles for McD's breakfast!

Soon we were at McDonalds where Vinny's mom met us with a teary embrace. It was wonderful to see her!

Sabine had her first McGriddle, and I ordered one as well with a yogurt parfait. After round one, I went to the gas station for my guilty pleasure of gas station muffins and chocolate milk. Then, we went back to McDonalds for desert as soon as lunch started.

It was drizzling when we got back on the trail, which was bizarre. We only ended up doing a few miles over 20 because we stopped at Silverwood Lake and couldn't resist the picnic area by the lake - we ended up sleeping on the concrete by the picnic tables and saved the effort of setting up our tent.

We were so surprised to see this view in the desert!

One thing I've noticed about Southern California is that the line between "hiker trash" and "actually a hobo" becomes increasingly thin with all our access to urban comforts. For example, sleeping on a rock by a lake in Washington in your sleeping bag - serene and wild. Sleeping on a picnic table in your sleeping bag in SoCal - homeless vibes. The one benefit of being so close to creature comforts is that we are able to throw away our trash almost every day instead of carrying it with us.

We had a 28 mile day the next day and had to hike in the dark. We passed the Deep Creek Hot Springs, which looked really fun, but unfortunately it was a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed with partiers, half a dozen naked people, and copious substance use. We quickly said thanks but no thanks to a quick dip and instead sat around enjoying a break from the heat.

A large dam near the trail at Deep Creek. This was a hard, boring day for me...

Our first water crossing in what feels like months.

We camped that night at another established campsite and cowboyed together under a shelter - no need for tents yet again.

The next day, we came into Big Bear. The morning was very cold but the afternoon was blisteringly hot - at least the terrain has switched back to more forest and fall-like colors. Once we saw the beautiful lake, we excitedly hurried down the trail to meet Vinny's mom again, who picked us up to take us to the lodge we were staying at.

Noon Lodge was incredibly cute, super thoughtfully designed and even had a full kitchen! We were extremely excited about this, especially Sabine. She had been fascinated by the pre-made cookie dough available in grocery stores for as long as I've known her, and for some reason I thought she always wanted to buy them to eat the dough, but it turns out she really wanted to bake the cookies. Now, we finally had our chance! We showered and got burgers and hit the grocery store for our cookies, milk, and munchies.