PCT 17 – Baden Powell

Daily Miles: 15
Total Miles: 384

Woke up to a pretty cold room today, as there was no heat in our motel room. But we got dressed quickly and to cold wasn’t too bad.

We headed out to the main road to town around 7:45 in order to hitch back to the trail. We waited less than ten minutes before a kind man named Jeff picked us up. He and his wife moved to Wrightwood just a short time ago. He decided to spend his Saturday morning driving to the main road to see if any hikers needed a ride back to the trail. We were very appreciative of his generosity.

We started on the trail at 8:20 and had four fairly flat miles of trail to start the day. There were quite a few trail runners out this morning. With it being a Saturday and good weather, we weren’t surprised to see a lot of locals on the trail.

After four miles, we started the climb up Mount Baden Powell. The climb was fairly steep in some places even though there were a lot of switchbacks. We were thankful for the cool temperatures on the climb, as it made the ascent pretty pleasant.

There was a bit of snow on the trail once we had climbed about 3/4 of the way, but it was all hard packed, so it was easy to deal with. We got to the top in time for lunch with other hikers.

There were quite a few people on the trail and the summit today. Several Boy Scout troops and other groups of hikers in addition to lots of day hikers. As we got closer to the top, we became engulfed in cold, windy and cloudy conditions. As it got colder, we finished up our lunch and headed on.

We met up with MountainMan, Proton, Gazelle and CrossCountry on the summit and continued with them towards our campsite for the night. We had a few moments of sun, but mostly it was quite cold and windy/cloudy. As soon as we arrived at camp, SweetPea got right into her long johns to try to warm up.

We had a pretty short day today, so even with several ling breaks, we got to camp around 5:00. This is a pretty big campground with a privy. There are quite a few PCT hikers here in addition to several Boy Scout groups. There are probably 60 people camped here tonight. Chances are it will be a noisy night.

The temperatures continue to be quite cold this evening. It was probably just over freezing as we were sitting around eating dinner. SweetPea got too cold and headed to her hammock at 7:00, and Beardoh headed over to a nearby campsite to stand near the fire. Beardoh even brought SweetPea a toasted marshmallow and a hot dog! Perfect ending to another good day on the trail.