Day 27, May 14: Mile 369 to 376

• Start: Wrightwood/Mile 369.3

• End: Mile 375.8

• Miles: 6.5

• Ascent: 1851 | Descent: 1443

I slept pretty terribly at Chris’ house, I think from the spicy food and beer. Oops!

Amazon, G and I decided in the morning that we would hike 6 miles in later that day instead of the planned 15 so that we had a more relaxed day ahead of ourselves and didn’t have to rush to pack up.

The four of got breakfast at Grizzly Cafe in town, which was the best meal we’ve had yet. I had a crunchy, delicious waffle and tasty sausage links. And hot coffee! Cue the hallelujah chorus.

After breakfast, we went to the post office again, got sandwiches at Jensen’s, and then went back to the hardware/gear store again to drop off some items in the hiker box and look around. I bought a tiny harmonica and pet a cute toy poodle named Baxter.

To make the day even better, we wandered around town and went to a local cat cafe slash arcade, where you could pay a small fee to play with their adoptable kitties. It was the best $10 I’ve ever spent! I was on cloud 9.

Chris came back into town to pick us up, and went back to his peaceful cabin. We relaxed, G and Amazon napped, I called my sister and organized some things in my pack.

After a relaxing morning, Chris brought us back to the trailhead and we started hiking around 2:30pm. I felt mentally refreshed and so, so happy to be in Angeles National Forest. Wrightwood has been the best trail town experience yet, and I’m so grateful to Chris! Thanks dude!

The food carry at this point felt heavy and I took felt creaky and took it slow. The three of us realized it was also a bit hot to hike so after a mile, we stopped at the Grassy Hollow picnic area to wait out the heat a little more. I was playing my tiny harmonica and Amazon gave me the nickname Bob Dilly.

After a small climb and then a descent into Vincent Gap, we came to some trail magic by a guy named Hard Times. They were out of sodas when I got there, but G saved me a few sips of his Cactus Cooler.

After relaxing a bit in the shade, we started on the switchback ascent up Baden Powell. Soon, we reached Lamel Spring and got some water from it, which was a bit of a challenge and the flow was barely a trickle.

Soon after the spring, we found some cozy nests near the trail to camp in. The three of us had dinner together, Amazon and I stretched a bit together and we did our daily hug before going to bed.