Day 25

Today was a wildly confusing day. We woke and got coffee and breakfast in town. I was set to shuttle to Acton with Brian, a trail angel, at 9:30. I took the long drive with him and 3 Dutch folks to the KOA. Boujee and Thin Mint would come around 12:30. Once at the KOA I asked hikers about the 40 or so miles we were about to hike south. Let me start by saying that we got this ride here because there is a fire closure from Wrightwood to mile 403, so roughly 40 miles. We would’ve had a ride to 403 but last night at 5pm they shut down highway 2 for 2 weeks. So today we planned to hike south and get to mile 403 on Thursday morning for Rocket to get us.

Anyway, after talking with fellow hikers and looking at the elevation plot it seemed like a terrible ideas to climb 5400 ft with no water, exposed, for 16 miles. The Dutch folks got an Uber and we did when Thin Mint and Boujee arrived. We were going to go to 403 which was an hour away. When the driver arrived she was very nervous and didn’t know where she was going and kept saying she had never been this high elevation and was nervous. Her nervous driving and the long windy roads made me immediately sick and I asked her to pull the car over from feeling so sick. I had to do this two more times then she let me in the front. I asked one last time and then I decided there was no way I could go another 40 minutes in this windy car to the trailhead. We had just passed mile 418 so we asked to go back. This meant we would skip 15 miles of trail but honestly with the last minute highway closure and the whole mess we decided it was okay. We will walk more than 15 miles off trail, we’ve already walked a 5 mile side trail to town. I’m not worried.

Once we were at the trailhead we saw a bunch of other hikers. We laid around and enjoyed a little shade. I pushed on first and in an hour Boujee was behind me. We hiked together for most of the sun. The climbs weren’t bad but I had so much water and food. My legs ached from the heavy carry. We took one break and then pushed on till sunset. It was gorgeous at the top of the climb. Golden, orange, pink, blue, and purple. We both said how lucky we were to be here. It was a great end to the day. We pushed another .8 down the the Messenger Flat Campground. Around 9, Thin Mint showed up in the dark. We were glad for her company. We cooked and now we are all in our tents for the night.