Last night was windy and freezing cold!  Brrrr!  We broke camp at 5:00am and headed for “adventures on Mt. Baden-Powell.”  Because of so much snow on the PCT, we took the “road alternate” that’s only a few steps away, and has awesome views(including Baden-Powell), as opposed to the viewless, forest-surrounded PCT.  We met “Wyoming” at the ski lifts, and walked with her the rest of the way to Highway 2.  Wyoming stopped there, since she was headed for Wrightwood.  We felt very bad leaving her all by herself in the bitter cold, next to a highway with no cars. 

Bill and I kept going, with a little bit of concern about whether or not the water would be turned on at Grassy Hollow visitor center.  Not to worry!  A short way along the PCT from Highway 2, there was a water cache!  And not only that, but the trail itself became very pleasant–no more snow wrassles, AND really nice views.  The PCT goes through an interesting mix of evergreen, alpine-looking forests and oak woodlands.  Finally the trail began dropping down to Vincent Gap, and we were eyeing “Mt. B-P”.  From what we could tell, it had a fair amount of snow, but looked do-able. 

At the Baden-Powell trailhead parking lot,  a couple was resting.  Turned out they were section-hikers from Eureka, CA, who were headed for Agua Dulce.  I took a deep breath and prayed before we began to climb up. At the first the trail was easy going, clear of snow patches.  But by the time we reached the “Mile 2” marker, we found it buried in snow with only the top sticking out. Charlie and Shin were there, too, and discussing what to do.  The conclusion was, “Forget the trail, let’s just head straight up!”  So we all did!

Charlie and Shin were fast, and soon were way ahead, while I did my best.  Bill did a wonderful job kicking steps for me— I only needed my ice axe a couple of times— and by 2:00pm we were on top. I was very tired, not so much from the climb, but from the stress of being scared on the steeper parts.  We celebrated with a late lunch of crackers and peanut butter while we ate, admired and wondered about the very strange clouds we were seeing above and below us. Some were dramatic,dark and stormy-looking.   “Will it rain?” we wondered.  The section hiker couple we’d passed earlier caught up with us and soon we all headed out, only able to guess where the PCT headed down the next ridge. Snow covered all north slopes, but the ridgetop was so flat that the snow was easy to walk on.

The husband of the other couple was taller and heavier than Bill, and he really worked hard at TRAMPING out footsteps for his wife to follow.  Perfect!  I was able to use the footsteps, too, though he (and we) tried to stay on bare dirt as much as possible.  We all spent the rest of the afternoon in a challenging mix of rock climbing, snow traverses, route-finding (we did see a few short “patches” of trail occasionally) and scrambling over logs and bushes.  The rockclimbing bits happened whenever we were faced with a choice of  1) Walk across a steep snowfield  vs. 2) Climb over a bunch of rocks.  We all chose the rocks!  The PCT itself wandered all over the place, which is normal, but oh, man, it sure makes it hard when there’s lots of snow! 

 A bit after 6:00pm, we were all climbing up another ridge  in a howling cold wind, when I spotted a trail sign in the forest off to the right.  Bill went to investigate. Just as he returned, the wind changed to a scream and it began to SNOW!  We could hardly even stand up in it.  The snow was blowing straight sideways!  We and the Eureka couple held a worried conference on what to do.  It was getting late, and based on the sign Bill had read, we still had another 3 miles or so to reach Little Jimmy Campground.  None of us were even sure how to get there, with the trail buried in snow.  In the end, the Eureka folks opted to push on, following the ridge, hoping to reach the campground before dark.  Bill and I chose to head down to the highway, which we could actually SEE down below (WAY down!)  It took 1 1/2 hours for us to make it–and it was my fault it took so long.  Bill’s downhill technique on steep, rough terrain is to just “go for it”, with dirt, twigs and small rocks flying everywhere.  Me, well, I am way slower, because I don’t trust my ankles.  They have a bad habit of just going “flop” all of a sudden.  I definitely didn’t want to sprain an ankle on that mountainside in the freezing wind with a mixture of snow and rain coming down!  The hillside was very steep, and we were crossing snow, rocks, scree, and plenty of fallen trees. It took till almost dark before we reached the road, about done in.  We’d had no dinner and no snack. 

But amazingly and wonderfully, it turned out that we had come down in the absolutely most perfect spot ever–the one place where the mountainside by the road was not a cliff–just very steep.  We could still safely sort of half-slide down.  And not only that, but we landed in a turnout for the highway that was snow-free, flat, and DRY!  The ground was not muddy or puddly. Everywhere else along the highway, there were no turnouts, and there was no way down except over a cliff.  The wind was still howling, it was raining with some snowflakes mixed in, and we wasted no time putting up our tarp in “storm rig” before getting under it and burrowing into our sleeping bags.   But we were safe!   And I was very grateful to God for 1) The great encouragement of meeting up with Charlie, Shin, and the Eureka folks  2) Having such great footprints to follow in the snow   3) Coming down off the mountain in just the right spot!

What a day!  Wow!

Walk to Rivendell: High, steep, stony hills with caves.

Wow, what a day!  Over 26 miles of hiking, and 95% of it uphill, since the trail had to climb from 3,000 feet to 8,000 feet in elevation. 

We were up at 5:45, and took our one leftover trail breakfast down to the Best Western “breakfast room”, which opened at 6:00am. All the thruhikers were there! We scarfed up our trail breakfast, plus everything else Best Western had to offer,  while talking with the other hikers.  The hot topic was the big detour ahead of us— maps were being spread out on tables and opinions of various sorts were “fervently discussed.”   And there was a fair amount of grumping about “The detour is gonna be ugly…yuck, a powerline walk!”

We figured, “Whatever, let’s go!”,  shouldered our packs and headed  back to the PCT, stopping off at Subway to get sandwiches for lunch.  The trail takes you through a dark tunnel under the freeway, then into a very green “jungle zone”, and finally up onto the hillsides where the views begin!  To my great delight, just as we were about to go under the railroad tracks, a train came by! 

The PCT climbs up and up, with great views of the railroad (did I mention I love railroads??) and also views of the thick smog (or was it smoke? Not sure) of Los Angeles.  It wasn’t long till we came to the officially closed section of the PCT, and turned to follow the detour route, which was a dirt powerline road.  Up and up we went.  The wildflowers were gorgeous.  At the top of the climb we could see a green oasis a little bit below, and that’s where the detour went–to Applewhite Campground.  We got water there and enjoyed talking to one of the park staff about the detour.  He said all the locals think the PCT route is perfectly safe and sending all the hikers on a 15 mile detour is totally dumb.  He also told us he was in the campground on the afternoon when the fire started, and it was very, very scary.  Had the wind been blowing the other way, the whole little Applewhite Valley community would have been trapped.  I am glad the wind went the other way!  I enjoyed the brief stop among green trees and grass and creek!

Bill and I hiked on up Lytle Canyon Road, past several cute old wood cabins and houses, till we found ourselves walking up a long, long valley with snowy mountains waiting at the end.  But best of all, just before noon, we reached “The Firing Line,” a big shooting range out in the middle of nowhere.

We bought cold drinks and got permission to watch all the goings on. There were 4 ranges, each different, and all ages of folk, with all sorts of guns, and all levels of shooting ability, from “Wow, he’s good!” to pretty pathetic. Very cool.  (Actually, we could HEAR  “The Firing Line” long before we could SEE it–sounded like a Civil War battle re-enactment.)

Note from Alexa: How uncivilized, they ought to be using longbows

A long climb up a rocky road  and then a switchbacking trail took us back to the PCT, which promptly began its usual “scratch across the side of a mountain” pattern.  (I still say we shouldn’t call it the Pacific CREST Trail.  To be accurate, it should be called the Pacific SIDE-OF-THE-MOUNTAIN trail. )  Up ahead on a saddle, we spotted a whole group of people and two parked cars.  “Search and rescue operation?”  was our first thought.  Well, sort of…it turned out to be a search and rescue PRACTICE.  Also in the crowd were a bunch of PCT thruhikers, discussing where to camp tonight.  The final decision was for Guffy Campground. 

Bill and I kept on going, with our usual plan of “We camp at the first flat place we find when the sun starts going down.”   I thought it was maybe another 5 miles or so to Guffy.  The PCT climbed higher and higher.  I was really tired at this point, and pretty soon the group we’d passed back at the saddle caught up with us.  To add to the fun, the PCT soon became an obstacle course of snowdrifts to climb over, while the wind blew stronger and colder.  Finally the snowdrifts became so annoying that we shifted to walking parallel to the trail along a road (we did this in 2005 as well).

Along the way we caught up again to the group that had passed us.  They’d stopped to wait for a missing member who’d been lagging behind.  All of them were very worried.  We were no help, since we hadn’t seen him either.  A final stiff climb took us to Guffy Campground (turned out it was 8 miles, not 5 as I’d thought).  Snowdrifts were everywhere, the wind was fierce, and it was very cold.  Our first concern was getting water, but we couldn’t find the trail down to the spring till we spotted a guy coming UP it.  Whew!  Bill and another of the young guys headed down to get water while  I hunkered down out of the wind as best I could.  When Bill got back, I cooked dinner in the lee of the bathroom before we hunted around, found a little sheltered  hollow and  prepared for a cold night.  This is the first time we’ve ever had to camp near other hikers, but we were too tired to go on.  It sure is nice to be back in the forest again, though!   Baden-Powell tomorrow!

Walk to Rivendell: Steep lands of the Trollshaws & ancient realm of Arnor