Woke up and headed out with Stretch and Rollercoaster at 5:30 knowing there was a huge climb ahead. Stretch did his thing and Rollercoaster and I chatted and made our way up this 20 mile upward climb. It was totally fine just ALOT of up. By noon I was about over it and ready to be in Wrightwood. We took a lunch break by a log where I got even more sunburnt and was over it haha. It was a beautiful day tho. The whole walk was though the ridge line and trees once we reached higher elevation.

Maria came to pick us up and we talked to her about the fire closure. She said a pct hiker received at 5000 dollar fine and that definitely validated our reason to not do it. She even said folks did not recommended the road walk because of the rock slide and blasting that was going on. So crazy to have all of this happening at once. I know other hikers who decided to do the closure and it’s disappointing. We made it to Wrightwood where Rocky and Odysseus were chilling at the lodge that we were staying at. Super cute house with books everywhere and little knick knacks. We decided to head out for Mexican and it was soooo good. I even got a peach margarita. We got back to the house and I was dead tired from hiking. The crew wanted to figure out how to get about to fire closure and resupply but I was too tired to figure that out so I went to bed at 8:30.

Woke up in a beautiful lodge in Wrightwood. Headed downstairs because I smelled coffee. Grabbed a bio and then sat on the porch with Stretch, Odysseus and Nathan. It was so cozy. We talked about the morning plan when the Kyle, the handy man and the house manager Kitty, came outside. Both very interesting folks. Kyle was telling us about how he tried to go to Canada once, but he was detained for Two days because of his DUIs and other sorts of stuff like that. And Kitty was a character too. Overall, a fun eventful type of morning. Kitty gave us a ride after scolding Kenny about not putting gas in the car and we were off. I also decided to get another new pack because the hip belt on this one keeps becoming loose, having to sinch it every ten minutes. I even called two foot adventures for advice and she was so helpful. I need to buy something for that woman.

So Kitty took us to town; we had a delicious breakfast and made our way to the hardware store. We scored a PCT pin there and some hiker box finds. Then we went to the grocery store to resupply where Maria picked us up. Said bye to Rocky and Nathan who will probably catch up to us tomorrow. I had to call Rocky to grab me some new gaiters when we meet up because mine broke.

We had a two hour drive around the fire closure. We met up with some new hikers, Tigger, Blue, Babs, and another hiker. Ended up chatting for a while and all started the hike together. Tigger and I chatted the whole 8 miles which was really nice. His crew stopped a mile after ours so hopefully we overlap again.

Stretch, Roller Coaster, Odysseus and I set up camp and ran to the top of the hill to catch this magical sunset. Probably the pretty sunset I’ve ever seen. Talk about trail magic. It was a great day.