Big Bear to Wrightwood

By the numbers
Total Miles hiked: 369.4
Completion percentage: 13.9%
Hiking days: 25
Zero days: 11
Total Ascent: 65825 ft.
Total descent: 58979 ft.
Blister count: 9
Notable injury count: 1

My stay in Big Bear was highlighted by the staff at the Big Bear hostel. The hostel is a relatively small operation run by a former marine who goes by ‘Sarge’. The place is operated with military efficiency, which was a joy to observe during my extended days of couch surfing. Sarge had an explicit set of rules to follow that rubbed some of the more ‘laid back’ hikers the wrong way. The number of people who couldn’t follow the “get the hell out of the hostel by 9 AM” rule was comically high.

In total, it took 8 zero days in Big Bear to let my infected blister heal. It was significantly more time than I wanted to spend, but the design to give myself enough time to heal paid off. During the 6 day trek into Wrightwood I didn’t experience any pain and the blisters have retreated under new layers of skin.

On the first day out of Big Bear I was essentially kidnapped by a group of hikers who aggressively friend people. We were planning on getting to Wrightwood in the same length of time, so we ended up camping at similar locations every night. Its a pretty laid back group that allows people to do what they want for the most part. We decided on specific meeting times and places for each stop, and then everyone gets there according to their own hiking style.

The first few days of the trek were pretty uneventful, but the third night brought some unexpected weather. Near freezing temperatures and uncharacteristically heavy rain made for a tough night’s camp. The morning after, we were met with more rain, and it made for a nasty hike. Luckily we had something to look forward to in the afternoon. About 10 miles from where we made camp the night before was a set of man-made hot springs. Luckily, the weather cooperated and the rain cleared up as the crew assembled at the small desert oasis.

We spent a few hours there lounging on the beach and drinking a bag of wine gifted to us by a fellow hiker named ‘Tonka’. Afterwards the group split up, and a small number of us decided we were going to hike an additional 4 miles to an established campsite while the rest would hike out about 9 miles. After a few hours we reached our intended destination and were met with heavy winds. The gusts were blowing sand and dirt in the air and we very quickly decided it would not be a good place to camp. We decided to hike and meet the rest of the group ~4.5 miles out. We begrudgingly moved on. About a mile in we were met with some trail magic from ‘Papa Bear’ and by pure coincidence met up with the rest of the trail family.

At roughly the same time, the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse and dark clouds were rising in the distance. Most of the trail family decided to take an Uber off trail and get a hotel for the night but I was not really interested in getting off trail so soon after my extended break. Like a true college freshman I skulled an already opened bud light that a stranger handed to me and made a decision to do something potentially dangerous, but would make for a great story. Brightside, T-pain, Danish, muscle, 70/30, and I decided to push on into the storm.

As it turns out, the storm was all bark and no bite. Strong winds and light drizzle all-but completely faded by the time we got to camp. The next morning we were met with perfect hiking conditions and made it to Cajon pass, which is famous on the PCT as it has a McDonalds only about 0.1 miles off trail. After an extended stay and countless calories, the group headed out and we began the 4200 foot climb to Wrightwood.

As planned we made it roughly halfway to Wrightwood and camped on the mountainside. That night we were met with freezing conditions. When I awoke the next morning, my tent was covered in a sheet of ice. It was so dense it had to be broken off of my rainfly. Luckily, we had cell service and were able to check the forecast for the final push. The forecast predicted snow staring between 10 and 11 am. We broke camp at 6 am and hiked as fast as we could hoping to beat the storm. The elevation and incline made hiking slow, and we made it roughly 10 miles before the storm hit at 10:30. Luckily at that point the remainder of the trail into Wrightwood was relatively flat.

As the day progressed conditions got worse and the snowfall increased. Originally, I thought that the storm was a mix of snow and hail, but it turns out it was a very specific type of precipitation called graupel. It is not something I had encountered before, but Muscle is quite knowledge about weather and was nice enough to educate the group about it. If you want to read more about it you can do so here: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/frozen-precipitation-defined-23431. As the storm got worse our pace slowed and our spirits dropped. It took roughly 3.5 hours to hike the remaining 7 miles, which is a glacially slow pace given the terrain. Carjack and I were the last two hikers off the trail at Highway 2, and it took us an excruciating 15 minutes to grab a hitch into Wrightwood .