Day 20 – Tuesday, June 13

Wrightwood 369.4 to PCT mile 383.9, Little Jimmy Campground

Day Total: 14.5 miles

It was nice to sleep in a real bed last night, and to sleep in a little later than usual. We enjoyed big breakfast burritos and a huge cinnamon roll at a place called Cinnamon Bakery that was full of hikers. 

We stopped by the hardware store to sign the PCT register, and look for names of friends ahead of us on the trail. We bought four days of food at the super hiker-friendly grocery store and squished it all into our packs. They had whole shelves of things like tuna packets and instant mashed potatoes, Snickers and Clif bars. It was a highly enjoyable shopping experience. 

Stephen and I each bought a new pair of socks from the great selection at the gas station. Only in a trail town!

While we were filling up our water, a guy in a US Forest Service truck offered to give us a ride back to the trail. We didn't even need to stick a thumb out. We were very fortunate to happen across this guy. It would have been very hard to get a ride since the highway was closed to through traffic because of a sinkhole! 

We started hiking a little after 11 a.m. after all of our errands.

The trail followed rolling hills through a beautiful old-growth forest for three miles before the steep climb up Mount Baden-Powell. The sign at the bottom said it was 41 switchbacks to the top.

Stephen said, and I agree, that they could've used some more. It was a doozy of a climb, especially in comparison to the nicely graded uphill we climbed yesterday. 

The summit was spectacular!

Standing at 9,407 feet, we could vaguely see the snowy Sierras far off along the horizon, our first glimpse of the promised mountains! To the south, we could see ridges we had climbed over the last week. 

We hiked about six more miles down to Little Jimmy Trail Camp, where we got water, cooked some rice, and went to bed.