Big Bear to Wrightwood – Close to Home

This week I go to cover a portion of the trail very near where I grew up. I walked portions of the trail I first walked when I was a kid, when my parents would take me camping in the mountains and tell me about a hiking trail that went all the way from Mexico to Canada, and the people who would hike the entire length of it. It never occurred to me that I could ever be one of those people, yet here I am, four weeks 370 miles in.

May 5th – Day 23

I arrived back at the PCT and the Highway 18 intersection around 11 and started hiking with Smiles and Pez. It was a warm day, but the trail in this section is pretty easy, so I made good progress. I didn’t have much of a mileage goal in mind, so I enjoyed an easy pace most of the afternoon, punctuated with nice views of Big Bear Lake. I passed a few day hikers who asked where I was headed. I’ll never get tired of replying with “Canada, eventually”.

Pez and I had planned to camp about 11 miles in at a spot with a picnic table. When we got there, we realized the picnic table was falling apart and decided to press on. Eventually we ended up at a nice spot a few miles ahead. I managed to get the best pitch of my tent I’ve had to date, and a fellow PCTer complimented me on it. It was a fairly warm evening and I slept well, happy to be back on trail. I didn’t even feel like I’d hiked much that day!

May 6th – Day 24

I packed up and hit the trail around 7:30. This portion of trail descends into a canyon where it follows Holcomb Creek and eventually Deep Creek. It was warm, but not uncomfortably so. Much of this section has unfortunately been burned by wildfires recently, so shade trees were scarce. Still, with the San Bernardino mountains in the distance the hike felt familiar, and I was in good spirits in the morning.

I took a lunch break at a crossing of Holcomb Creek with Pez, Smiles, Link, and a hiker named Kitchen Freak. Kitchen Freak packed up and headed out before Pez, Smiles, and I. As Smiles was packing up, he realized that she had left her tent at the creek crossing. Out of the three of us, Pez hikes the fastest, so Smiles voluntold Pez to carry the tent until he passed her on the trail. Fortunately, she took a break only a mile after the creek and Pez was able to return her tent to her. I wondered how someone could miss something as important as a tent while packing up. I’d come to understand the next day.

Pez, Smiles and I stopped for the night under a bridge at our first crossing of Deep Creek. The spot was beautiful, but there were quite a few mosquitos as the sun started to set. I hadn’t counted on encountering any bugs until the Sierras, so I was unprepared. I headed into my tent and was grateful for my bug-free zone. Why Pez and Smiles chose to cowboy camp there, I will never understand.

May 7th – Day 25

We set off in the morning with only 9 miles to Deep Creek Hot Springs, a spot famous on the PCT as well as in my hometown for its natural, minimally developed hot springs and its “clothing optional” atmosphere. We planned to take a lunch break there. On the way I passed the 300 miles signpost. The trail here winds through a canyon with desert shrubs on the hills and green cottonwoods near the river.

When I got to the hot springs I set out my stuff near a large group of PCT hikers, including Pez, Smiles, Kitchen Freak, Peeps, Caboose, Baby Bucket, Other Mike, and Merlin. With everyone’s stuff all around I made a mental note to double check when I packed up to be sure I didn’t leave anything behind. I enjoyed a long break through the afternoon, chatting with PCT hikers and locals who had hiked in for the day or weekend. I broke out my sewing kit to repair a hole that had ripped in my shorts. My fix wasn’t pretty, but its held well so far. The four pools in the hot springs varied in temperature so there’s always one that will suit your needs. Finally around 4 pm I started packing up to continue on to my intended campsite for the night about 5 miles ahead.

The trail continues to the “rainbow bridge”, a spot that I have hiked to many times. I continues to wind through the canyon before opening up to stunning views of the Silverwood Dam and the San Gabriel mountains beyond. It was a pretty impressive view, even 300 miles into the trail, and Pez turned to me and told me he understood why someone might have a life epiphany on one of these trails.

After descending beyond the dam the trail starts to lack suitable campsites. Everywhere flat was covered with knee high grass, and we worried we wouldn’t find anywhere. Finally, we spotted a small flat spot a little up a gully and grabbed it. The spot was big enough for at most one tent. I begrudgingly decided to try out “cowboy camping” for the first time so that Pez, Smiles, and I could all camp there.

As I unpacked my bag to cook dinner, I realized in a moment of panic that my cook set was not there. I knew instantly that I’d left it at the hot springs, five and a half miles back. I considered night hiking to go back for it because I wasn’t feeling tired, but Pez reminded me that after 11 miles I definitely would feel tired. I was upset at myself for not checking the area around me better as I was leaving, even after seeing another hiker leave her tent behind just the day before and even making a mental note of how easy it would be to leave something at a place with so much gear strewn around. I was less upset about the loss cookset, which included my pot, stove, fuel, lighter, soap, and sponge all wrapped up in a bandana, because as far as gear goes it was one of the less critical and less expensive things to lose. I was more upset that I’d left something in such a beautiful place to sit and decay until someone else packed it out for me. Pez tried texting someone we knew was behind us to see if they could find it, but no one had cell service at the hot springs, so I didn’t have high hopes.

Pez offered to let me use his stove that evening to cook dinner. Pez made a “ramen bomb”, a mix of ramen and instant mashed potatoes, for himself and asked to borrow my spoon to scoop the food into his cold soak jar so that I could use his pot. As he was scooping, the cement like texture of his dinner caused my bamboo spoon to snap in half. He was incredibly apologetic, especially after I’d just lost the rest of my cookset, but the look of shock and horror on his face was more than worth the loss of the spoon. I shrugged it off and have been using the short end of the spoon ever since. Hey, it’s more ultralight, right?

May 8th – Day 26

I slept alright, no thanks to the multiple cars and trucks zooming through the area blasting music well past “hiker midnight” aka 8:30. I couldn’t be too upset, though. Growing up in this area, I had once been one of them. Spending the night under the stars was beautiful, but there were definitely more bugs than I would have liked. I may consider cowboy camping again, but only somewhere farther away from water. I had hoped that not needing to break down a tent might help me get out earlier in the mornings, as Pez had started calling me “late start” due to my tendency to be the last out of camp. Unfortunately cowboy camping did not speed up my morning routine, so I’ll need to find new strategies going forward. It was after 8 by the time I finally started hiking.

About a mile from camp I passed a day hiker heading in. As he approached I thought he looked familiar. “It’s so good to see thru hikers out here this year!” he said, “There were hardly any last year, because of Covid.” He stopped as he passed me and asked if my last name was Spencer. I told him it was. “First name is Megan, right?”

It was a member of my church and former Confirmation teacher Brian out for a day hike! Brian had no idea that I was thru hiking, so it was a chance meeting. It was great to see a familiar face. I’d wondered if I might run into someone I knew from my high school days on the trail, but I didn’t actually think it would happen. We chatted briefly and Brian wished me luck as I continued on.

The portion of the PCT between the Dam and Silverwood Lake is one I used to do when I first got my license. I’d drive out to the access points and hike a few miles on a Saturday, because there wasn’t much else to do growing up in the High Desert. I really enjoyed this portion of my hike. I also had cell service. I turned my phone on and saw a text from Pez, he had heard from Bowie that a man named Mountain Lion had my stove! I couldn’t believe someone had decided to pack it out with no idea who it belonged to. Pez sent me this man’s number and I sent him a text right away. Mountain Lion called me immediately. He was planning on camping a few miles behind where I was on the trail, but due to limited water I didn’t have the option of hiking backwards and waiting for him there. I asked him to leave the stove off of a dirt road only a quarter mile from Highway 173, and told him that I’d have someone drive me back to pick it up at the end of the day. He agreed, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to get my stove back! I thanked him profusely and apologized for the extra weight he had packed out of the canyon on my behalf. The kindness of thru hikers will never cease to amaze me.

I’d known that I wasn’t breaking any speed records up to this point, but after telling Smiles and Pez that I was going to get my stove back I was shocked to learn that they were both about 5 miles ahead of me! Oops. We had planned to meet at Highway 138 to get a ride to sushi together at 4 pm, so I picked up the pace and tried to make up some time. Pez found a secluded beach off Silverwood Lake for his lunch spot and sent me the details. I powered there and found it was just as great in person. A few fisherman wandered by halfway through my lunch and asked if I’d caught anything. I explained that no, I wasn’t fishing, just hiking the PCT. They looked at me in disbelief. “That can’t be the shortest way to Canada, right?” one of them asked. I told them no, it wasn’t, but it would be the prettiest!

I managed to get to the Highway just before 4 pm. Smiles and Pez had been waiting with a group by the lake for several hours, but joined me as my parents gave us a ride to a rather unexpected sushi restaurant off Highway 138. After my parents dropped Pez and Smiles off back at the trail, they drove me to the place where Mountain Lion had left my stove. I was so happy to have gotten it back! I went back to my parent’s place to prepare for a point-to-point hike I’d do the next day with my Mom in honor of Mother’s Day.

May 9th – Day 17

It was Mother’s Day, and my timing had somehow worked out perfectly that it was also the day I’d walk from Silverwood Lake to the Cajon Pass, a section of trail my mother had talked about doing as a point to point day hike since before I’d even considered doing the PCT. I left my big pack with my Dad in favor of a day pack for this section. My Dad would bring my pack when he came to pick up my Mom from the Cajon Pass. We started our hike just after 7 am.

My Mom was nervous about hiking this section. She hadn’t done a hike this long (13 miles) in a very long time, and she was worried she’d slow me down. My Dad and I knew she’d crush it, though, as she’s been training to power walk a marathon and is in great shape. Sure enough, she made great time, and didn’t slow me down in the slightest. In fact, I had to work to keep up with her on the uphill sections!

This section of the trail was unexpectedly beautiful and opens up to beautiful views of the mountains before descending into the Cajon Pass. As we descended, Bowie and Foxtail creeped up behind us. “Fire Ant! Did you get your stove back?” Bowie yelled from above. He was as shocked as I had been when I told him that I did get my stove back. Bowie and and Foxtail passed us on our way down as they literally ran down the mountain in their excitement to get to a PCT landmark – the Cajon Pass McDonald’s. Nothing excites thru-hikers more than easily accessible greasy food.

We got to the McDonald’s before 1 pm and celebrated with some fries and an apple pie. My Dad was already there, so once I finished my meal I grabbed my pack, said goodbye to my parents, and joined a group of thru hikers hanging out in the shade of a tree in front of the gas station. I rejoined Pez, who was five cheeseburgers into what he calls the “Markdonalds Challenge”, for which he planned to eat one cheeseburger for every mile between the Cajon Pass and Wrightwood – 27 burgers for 27 miles. To be clear, no one put Pez up to this, he did this all from his own desire to challenge himself. I had my doubts about his ability to succeed looking at how many cheeseburgers packed his food bag, but there would be no talking him out of it.

Smiles had gone to San Bernardino to celebrate his birthday. Pez told me that the night before they had camped above Silverwood Lake near some dirt roads. This proved to be a mistake as a large group of trucks pulled up next to their camp at Hiker Midnight in what Pez described as a “truck party” – locals playing music and drinking beer while cruising dirt roads. Pez, who is from Rhode Island, could not understand the purpose of this. I laughed because it was such a quintessential Victorville activity. I guess Pez and Smiles aren’t too impressed with my hometown.

Also under the shade tree were Ollie, Caboose, Pips, Peeps, Baby Bucket, Spamual Adams, Kitchen Freak, Other Mike, Merlin, Bowie, Foxtail and several other hikers who rotated in and out throughout the afternoon. Many were unimpressed by the Cajon Pass as a “trail town” as there were multiple sketchy characters around and quite a bit of trash. Once again, my hometown proves to be objectively the worst trail town to date. I tried to explain that this wasn’t really a town, just a freeway pit stop between LA and Vegas, but I think it fell of deaf ears.

Around 4 we packed up and headed the 5.4 miles to our campsite for the night. We passed under the freeway, over some railroad tracks, and through a few drainage pipes on the way. It was a more developed section of trail than we were used to, but still beautiful. At the campsite there was a water cache. As we all sat around and chatted for the evening I was shocked to see my Dad pull up on his motorcycle. I had told him how important water caches were, and he’d decided to donate a few gallons while out on a motorcycle ride. He was surprised to see me, too, and seeing us all sitting around the cache he told me we were living a lot like gypsies. After my Dad left, Pez managed to get down six more burgers before calling it a night, bringing his total to 11.

May 10th – Day 28

The day started out foggy and overcast. It was 17 miles of constant climbing to get to Guffy campground, with no water at all in those miles. I headed up the mountain and got a text from Pez that he planned of heading all the way to Wrightwood that evening. He wanted to be in town, and he was making enough progress on his burger challenge that he thought he could finish by that evening. I wished him luck.

I was shocked to run into Smiles late morning. He had started from the Cajon Pass at 4 am and was making great time, and was ahead of me most of the day. As I continued to climb I got above the clouds and was rewarded with nice views. I could feel that my fitness was improving, as the climbing didn’t feel nearly as difficult as I’d thought it would.

I got to Guffy Campground a little after four. By car camping standards, Guffy is primitive as best. It’s first come, first served, there’s no water or bear lockers, and the sites are varied in size with some having very little space for tents. For thru hikers, Guffy is luxurious, with fire pits, picnic tables, pit toilets (with toilet paper!), and trash cans. I snagged a truly remarkable campsite, and enjoyed the company of thru hikers and car campers alike, including a fellow Serrano High School alum! The evening was warm and still, and I was so happy to be on the mountain.

May 11th – Day 29

With only five miles to hike until Inspiration Point, where I’d be meeting my sister, Katherine, it would be an easy morning. This part of the trail is mostly flat with beautiful views. I had a great day and met my sister a few miles from the parking lot. She had decided to get there early and hike in to meet me! When we got to the parking lot we squeezed Smiles, Bowie, Foxtail, and Kitchen Freak in the back of her Rav 4 down to Wrightwood. Katherine and I got brunch at the Evergreen Cafe, where I had a massive and delicious chicken fried steak.

Katherine drove me back to my parents house four laundry and a shower. As I write this in the early morning of May 12th, I plan on hiking 27 miles today from Inspiration Point to Vincent Gap and through the Bobcat Fire closure on Highway 2. It will be by far my biggest hiking day to date, but would avoid having to camp in the burn areas. Wish me luck! Also for those wondering, yes, Pez did complete the Markdonalds challenge.

Until next time,

Megan “Fire Ant” Spencer