Wrightwood – Big Bear Lake – Day 144 – Wed Nov 15th

Day 144 Wed Nov 15th
Mountain Hideaway Cabin – Wrightwood – Cajon Pass – Cajon Inn
2291.8 – 2313.3
Approx. 2769 ft ascent 6293 ft descent
23.9 Miles (not incl 0.7 mile to Cajon Inn)

Before we even get one foot back on the trail we have to hike 1.7 miles back up the very steep Acorn trail.

Some hikers avoid this by hitching in and out of Wrightwood from the highway at Inspiration Point. Although we hadn’t been lucky enough to get a ride from here and decided to push on the extra 7 miles.
The cabin was also right at the start of the Acorn Trail so avoided any reliance on hitching and meant we could get a nice early start.

We ended up leaving the cabin around 09:00 + it took us around 50 minutes to get back to the PCT.
The climb certainly wasn’t for the faint hearted and it’s a good job we had a decent breakfast inside us.

Back on the PCT we now have just a short bit of up before we drop approximately 21ish miles down to Cajon Pass.
This is a well known stop on the PCT as there is a McDonald’s just off trail. Offering a great opportunity to load up on those calories.

Today turned out to possibly one of the harder days on trail.
Around mid-morning the predicted bad weather started to roll in. Aptly named “An Atmospheric river”.
The cloud patterns cloaking the mountains formed dark menacing waves like an angry water colour. This was something neither of us have ever witnessed before and was slightly unnerving.

It wasn’t long before it started pouring cold wet torrential rain and this didn’t relent all day!

We managed to maintain high spirits for most of the day + there was nothing else we could have done. We just need to suck it up and keep moving forward.
In addition to our rain gear our trusty sun umbrellas were a god send in helping deflect the cold rain away from our bodies and out of our faces.

As it started to get dark things took a more sinister turn. Due to the amount of rain the trail conditions were getting sketchy and super slippery. I lost my footing on a number of occasions and Sarah was starting to panic.

To make matters worse it also started to get even more windy. Meaning our umbrellas were rendered useless. They kept folding inside out + were more of a hindrance than an aid.

Fred had passed through this stretch and mentioned that he’d got a little lost approaching the freeway in the dark.
For us it was not only dark, it was raining hard and misty with the visibility getting worse by the minute.
It started to get a little scary as loosing visibility in the mountains, especially when you are wet and cold is really bad news.
I tried to keep a level head and did my best to reassure Sarah that things would be OK. We just needed to keep moving forward.

Because it was so wet, using the mobile phone app Far Out for navigation also proved difficult.
Both our phones were in ziplocks and were difficult to use without the cover of our trusty umbrellas.

We also had to dodge lots of frogs on the trail. They all seemed to be relishing the downpour. Standing proud and enjoying the rain on there backs.

As we got closer to the freeway we had to walk underneath the famous tunnel and rail road underpass.
On an ordinary day this would have been child’s play. But not today!
First up we waded through shin deep flood water running through the tunnel.
It was fast flowing similar to a Sierra river crossing, just a little more urban!

We then arrived at the rail road underpass.
Navigation was hard and we felt like we were walking into something out of a Stephen King film. “Hey Georgie. They all float down here”
Sarah was concerned that some homeless tweaker or Pennywise the clown was gonna jump out on us at any second.

We could hear flood water flowing fast in the underpass, but under the light of our head torches couldn’t see more than 6 feet in front of us.

We had to keep moving and I lead the way wading through the flood water in the dark.
The golden arches of McDonald’s were so close and we desperately needed to get out of this bad weather before hypothermia started to kick in.
We made it through the underpass and I found a PCT sign amongst the rocks and flood water. Finally we were back on track.

Dripping wet and freezing cold we made it into the warm arms of the McDonald’s.
Never have we been so relieved to have arrived at the golden arches.

Things always look better after a warm drink, quarter pounder with cheese and Mc Chicken spicy.
We put back on our soaking wet rain gear and walked back out into the rain. Heading towards the Cajon Inn which was a further mile along the highway.

Once checked into the motel it wasn’t long before we had all our wet gear spread out across the room trying to dry it out.
I never trust dry bags or “supposedly” waterproof packs. So in addition to using standard dry bags we’d been extra careful to wrap all our stuff in extra plastic bags. Somehow water had still got into some of them. That’s just how wet and bad the weather had been!

After a warm shower it wasn’t long before I passed out mentally and physically exhausted.
Both of us were so relived that there was a dry place to stay tonight, as it would have been a total nightmare setting up our tent in this bad weather.