This morning I woke up around 4 AM and was surprisingly not that groggy. Without even touching my legs, I could tell that the hives were a lot better. And last night was a surprisingly super warm night. Probably one of the first nights on the entire PCT that I haven’t had to sleep in multiple layers.
I made a hot mocha and then began getting packed up. I was hoping to be out of camp at or before 5:30 AM. I only have 22 miles to get to Cajon pass, where I’m going to be calling it a shorter day today.
When I was packing up this morning, I wound up putting some electrolytes into one of my bottles and was standing over my backpack facing the water bottle side pockets. Both of my pockets are constantly filled with dirt, rocks, pine needles, and stuff like that. They just wind up getting super thrashed from picking my backpack up and down and brushing against things alongside the trail. But when I went to put my water bottle into one of the pockets, I looked inside and saw some thing that left me in complete shock.
The sunrise this morning was incredible.
I kid you not, I found my grandma‘s pendant in my water bottle side pocket. The one that I lost a few weeks ago, and I had completely written off. Somehow, when it got ripped off by my chest strap as I flung my backpack off my shoulder, it flew into the water bottle side pocket while I had bottles in that pocket. The only vivid memory I had is watching it fly off my neck. And assumptive it had landed somewhere on the ground in the leaves and rocks of Connecticut.
Over the last few weeks I had completely given up hope about finding this pendant. I assumed it fell onto the ground, which was definitely the logical explanation. Not a single part of me could’ve thought that it would fly off my neck and land into the side pocket of my backpack, as I was dropping my pack onto the ground. Those pockets aren’t big, especially when you have both your water bottles in them.
It is such a treat to hike through the desert while everything is blooming.
First off, I just wanna say a huge thank you to the three or four different people who reached out to me saying that they went to that location to look for my pendant. I know Iceman, who was supporting me over some portions of the Appalachian Trail, had gone out to look for it. As well as at least two or three other individuals that reached out off of Instagram after having read the blog. Some of them went out and moved leaves around, used metal detectors, and basically took apart the entire staircase near the foot bridge across that stream. Taking literally hours out of their day to search for that pendant because of it sentimental value.
I was completely ok with the fact that I was likely never going to see the necklace again. And it just warmed my heart to think that so many people had gone out of their way to attempt to reunite it with me. When I found it in the side pocket of my backpack this morning you better believe that it brought me to tears. It was the start of the day. I hadn’t even taken my first steps yet. And this is the first time on the entire border to border calendar year triple crown that I shed a single tear. I’m more of a happy crier than a sad or scared crier.
The trail briefly walked along the side of the road, before heading over to the lake recreation area.
What an incredible way to start off the day. I finished packing up after that and obviously put the pendant into a safe place in my fanny pack. I couldn’t put it back onto my necklace because the gold clasp that held it onto the neck necklace had been split when it flew off my neck three weeks ago. And as I began walking, I had to call my mom and tell her. This was her mother‘s necklace, and she passed away many years ago. Obviously, we have very little left to remember her by. This was something that was incredibly sentimental and precious to me. Losing it felt almost unimaginable. The easiest way to cope with it was just by trying not to think about it much. Having something that means so much to you and you carry with you every single day just randomly evaporate was pretty shocking. I don’t even know if I had fully wrapped my head around the fact that it was gone forever.
The beautiful lake which the trail skirted along for a few miles.
I can’t believe that in a blink of an eye I was reunited with this most precious treasure. Talk about the trail providing. This teeny little pendant has been in my side pocket for the last few weeks. Those pockets aren’t fully sealed and closed, and I’m throwing my backpack down on the ground constantly over the course of the day. I also flew across the country from New Hampshire to California as I traveled between the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. Nothing about that pocket was a safe or secure place to store anything. And yet the pendant has safely resided there for the last few weeks, just waiting for me to find it.
I really enjoyed this section of the trail, which weaved around the lake.
As you can imagine, I had a very delightful morning on the trail. Spirits were as high as they could possibly be, and I was excited to have a shorter day today as well. My hives felt so much better today than they had yesterday. And I put more topical cream on them this morning to help them over the course of the day. As long as this allergic reaction goes the way it had previously, it’ll just get better over the next couple days as I continue to treat it. And then eventually, it’ll be like it never happened at all.
Eventually the trail descended further, and the lake was out of sight. But it was nice while it lasted.
I passed by a few different hikers over the course of the morning. And the trail walked by this really beautiful lake that I vividly remembered going past in 2017. Today it was high tide, but when I was here in 2017 and the tide was low, we all laid on the shore by the lake for a while. It was really beautiful walking past the lake and the temperatures were so nice and cool in the early part of the morning. The trail was also nice and gradual, and there wasn’t much elevation gain to do so far.
After I finished making my way around the lake, the trail crossed over a road and then followed along a paved path briefly. I saw two hikers on the side of the road by a water source. Then up ahead, I saw a cluster of almost 10 hikers! It literally had my jaw on the ground. The guys who I passed, said it was the family with seven children, who are hiking the PCT together. I hadn’t even heard about them. What an incredible journey. The parents each had some of the biggest backpacks I’ve ever seen. Which makes a ton of sense because they’re carrying probably loads of extra gear and food for the kids. They must be troopers.
After passing by them, the trail was pretty gradual for another couple of miles. Then I began the next climb of the day. Around this time I think I had 12–13 miles remaining for the day. I was making way better time than I’d expected. Over the course of the entire morning I just tried not to check my phone or check the mileage. The time goes by a lot quicker if you don’t check too frequently. I listened to a podcast as I made my way up the next climb. And I wound up seeing some more hikers in the process as well.
Views of the valley below as I made my way up the next climb.
Over the next hour or so my mom and I were playing telephone tag. I had called her earlier in the morning to tell her about the pendant. It was her mother‘s necklace so she was the person that I called when I first lost it. Then she called me back later on in the day to tell me she had some exciting news. I love when she has news because she always makes me guess what it is. This time around she didn’t give me very many hints, but somehow I just knew exactly what she was talking about. She absolutely loves her home, but she lives down a ridiculously rough road. Over the years a lot of people on the street have tried to contact the town and see if the road would ever be repaired. But it was really far down on the list of roads they planned on fixing. Then randomly this afternoon people came out and repaved her entire road. She was so excited.
When I got closer to the top of this next climb, I passed by a few hikers sitting in the shade having a snack. But my eyes were set on town. I knew I had 2–3 miles of downhill to go. Then I had a gradual 3 mile climb. That would be the last climb for the day. And after that, I was just going to cruise the rest of the way to the junction for the McDonald’s.
Bright beautiful cactus flowers.
As I walked, I wound up seeing a pretty cool snake. It wasn’t poisonous or anything like that. But it had very similar colors to some types of rattlesnakes that I’ve seen before. I was feeling really good and just cruising along the trail. Then turned a corner and all of a sudden there were about six hikers in front of me. I love that this happens all the time. I won’t see anyone for ages. Then I’ll see one or two here and there. Then all of a sudden I’ll run into a huge group out of nowhere.
When I was heading up the next climb, I could see some hikers off in the distance. It took me a while to catch up to two of them. Then I saw a couple more in the distance, but I didn’t think I’d ever catch up to those two. For the entire day I actually figured I’d catch up to that guy Dreamer who I met yesterday. When I was just about ready to leave camp this morning I saw him cruise by. But I think I still had maybe 5 or 10 minutes of packing left to go. He must’ve been making some pretty dang good time, because I never wound up catching him.
When I was super close to the road, I saw a few more hikers off in the distance. It was three ladies who were all hiking together on a section. And the section ended at the McDonald’s, which was actually pretty exciting. What a fun place to end the hike. Their names were Sweeper, Cookies, and Zippy. Not long after I passed them I got to the sign for the McDonald’s. I was pretty dang shocked that it was right around noon. I left around 5:30 AM and had 22 miles to go for the day. So I figured I would be getting here maybe just before 1 PM. I must’ve been making a fantastic time over the course of the day. I know I was moving pretty quickly, but I didn’t realize I was going that fast.
Making my way up the sandy ridge toward the top of the next climb.
I headed down the road to the McDonald’s and was shocked to walk in and see at least 15+ hikers. They were taking up the entire seating area when you first walked in. It was kind of wild to open the door and just see all the heads turn and look over at you. I threw my pack down and got ready to grab some food. Right before I went to order there were a couple people who had recognized me off of the blog. I talked to them for a bit. They had figured I’d be catching up soon because of reading my updates. It’s always so cool to meet people in real life who’ve been reading the blogs. It’s still hard to wrap my head around it honestly even to this day.
I wound up ordering a large Big Mac meal, nuggets, a caramel frappe, and a Dr Pepper. When I was waiting for the food to come out, I started talking to to other hikers who have been watching the videos. It was two girls, and they were so nice. One of the girls was curious how far I made it on the AT, so we chatted for a bit. Then I grabbed my food and went to town. I devoured everything except for a few nuggets. Then took those on the road with the last bit of my frappe as I walked to the motel.
I had seen Dreamer inside the McDonald’s as well. He said he called the motel and they were cool with people checking in around 1 PM. So the timing worked out great. It was awesome that I got to check in around then, because that was the time I was originally thinking I would be getting to the McDonald’s. Now I’m at ahead of schedule!
Heading to the McDonald’s near cajon pass!
When I first got into town, I had to figure out some information about the trail up ahead. When I get closer to Wrightwood, there is a fire closure in place. I’ll have to get off the trail and walk a dirt road out to a main road. Then I’m going to walk literally right through Wrightwood. Then continue out of town on route two. There’s been a lot of mixed information about this. Some hikers are going to be doing some hitching, which is totally fine. But because of that, there isn’t as much information out there as there should be.
Apparently, some local people in the community are attempting to intimidate hikers by telling them they will get fined for walking route two. But it’s posted on the government website for the forest that hikers and bikers are welcome to access those roads. So any locals spreading misinformation like that are doing so without any legitimate reasoning. It took me a little bit of time to figure out which roads I need to be walking. Then I had to re-calculate the mileage for the section to make sure I had enough food. Once I get back on the PCT, there’s another closure not long after that as well.
All of that burnt a little more time than I was hoping. But once I finish that, I took a shower and got some other things sorted. Then I went through my resupply box. This box is so exciting because it has tons of awesome goodies. I got a new pair of shoes, some mountain house meals, and then two very exciting packages. Nightcore sent me a bunch of goodies. I knew I wouldn’t be able to mail anything home in this town, so I didn’t have everything sent out. But they are making a new power bank that is just over 3 ounces and has 5000 charge. It’s the size of a candy bar and will be perfect to carry in my fanny pack.
I also got a package from Coros. They sent me their new Vertix 2S watch, which I’m ridiculously excited to try out. This watch has every single feature you could possibly imagine. The biggest appeal to me is how much time I can spend tracking for days on end without having to charge it. It also is going to record everything from elevation, calories burned, mileage, route, etc. My Garmin watch stopped working probably close to two months ago. But that watch could hardly track anything because the battery life was so short. I am so excited to work with the features of this watch. And it can connect to my phone, which is super cool.
My new favorite piece of gear, the Coros Vertix 2S! An amazing smart watch.
For the rest of the day, I just got a ton of stuff done. I grabbed some resupply from the gas station down the road. I had a phone interview with a really cool person. It’s not something I can disclose yet, but as soon as I can, I will. There are some very exciting things in the works over here! That was so exciting that afterwards I called my dad to tell him. We caught up for a while and I did my resupplying. Then I came back to the motel and did some video work from the hot tub. That’s multitasking for you.
After I showered again, I put some things away. Then walked across the street to grab Subway for dinner and a bit more resupply. This next section is a little tricky. Because I’m planning on going to McDonald’s tomorrow morning for breakfast, and maybe packing a few things out. Then I’ll be walking through Wrightwood tomorrow afternoon. I’m just not sure how much eating I’m going to be doing in these towns. I don’t want to pack too little food. This last section I had just enough to get to town. My appetite is definitely in a whole other realm these days.
Later on in the evening, I ate dinner and then got tons of writing and video work done. It felt really good to get everything finished and all of my stuff packed away. Tomorrow morning I’m hopefully going to have a pretty early start. I have 15 trail miles to start the day. Then I will get onto a dirt road for about seven or so miles. And after that, I get onto a road with apparently a very narrow shoulder. That will take me all the way into Wrightwood. I’m hoping to walk through town and walk the road all the way back to the red line at least by the end of the day tomorrow. I’ll just have to see how everything plays out.
A delicious subway sub for dinner.
For now, I’m just happy to be relaxing in a bed in town. I made a makeshift heat pack to rest on. It feels so good to lay on heat. If you take a face cloth, wet it, and microwave it, then put it into a Ziploc bag, you have a heat pack! It doesn’t last as long, but you can repeat that cycle as many times as you need.
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