Mastodawn

1/ Late start as usual. Left home at eleven and got to the trailhead after midnight. Overnight road walking Highway Two closure 26 miles through the san gabriel mountains right now to meet with a hiker I'm supporting. Friend from trail maintenance is thru hiking this year. Noticed, they were a little discouraged going through Whitewater creek washouts last section, so I'll keep them company through the messy bits here.

2/ overnight road walk was awesome in the literal sense. Just past full moon, closed road, easy to move, no light needed. Dramatic water damage from this winter every quarter mile. By far the worst I've ever seen, little did I know what I'd encounter in the morning.

3/ going through more pictures as the overnight roadwalk continued. Walking the tunnels was fun. Then lots more washouts. Many had debris piled in front to mark safe area for work trucks, but many did not and I had to make sure not to get distracted on the phone and waltz off one.

4/ I knew the road was bad but I had no idea there were complete washout sections that have also closed it to pedestrians this year. I got by all this and booked it to get to the end of the closure before work trucks arrived. I almost made it but ran into one crew. Chatted and they confirmed the road is fully closed and enforcement has been out issuing fines. I updated comments on the PCT trail app with the info, jogged down to the gate and got out.

5/ ok, present me (pic 1, Sunday?) will fill you in. Things change fast. Got out of the Hwy 2 closure Friday morning, kept walking to Wrightwood. My hiker (third day fog soaked, cold, on the other side of Wrightwood) got picked up by a trail angel offering laundry, shower, overnight stay. They accepted, mentioned me, next thing I knew I was picked up and whisked to a warm shower, pancake breakfast, town day, buffet dinner, and a bed. 🔀

5a/ sidetrail: connecting with this particular trail angel was serendipitous as they're a nexus type of person. I'm connected with a couple of trail angels up and down trail from me and we forward people along to each other but this is a different level. There are people who actively help hikers suffering from harassment and stalking to transfer between large segments of the trail for their safety. Getting to know this trail angel has given me an opportunity to get involved.

6/ we got dropped off Saturday at the trailhead and bumped into several hikers from my hiker's bubble so we all went up Baden Powell together. Hasn't been much northbound flow since I passed 2 weeks ago and many hikers who've come this far are still apprehensive. I led anyone that tagged along around the snow to the summit and over the ridge to Little Jimmy camp avoiding the snow covered trail. Seemed appreciated, several mentioned they wouldn't have gone or would have turned around.

6a/ sidetrail: the noticeable lack of early people, especially snow experienced early people, to me confirms the theory that lower permit demand this year is in part due to less international hikers. The way it normally works is the spike is full of try hard Europeans racing each other to be the first over each mountain range in the snow. That's northbound PCT in the spring and it doesn't exist this year. The head of the spike is a woman from Montreal in her 20s and there's a couple Swiss hikers behind her and a Swede and that's it. Bunch of confused American kids behind them and still permit openings.

7/ after overnight at Little Jimmy camp, up Mt Williamson in the morning, then the endangered frog roadwalk detour, then friends of my hiker rolled up and come with us through the Cooper canyon tangles. After a hard climb up Cloudburst my hiker was done. 5 miles to camp wasn't going to happen. We decided to just try to get to the vehicles at 3 Points trailhead and maybe stealth camp nearby. Got to the trailhead and '23 hiker Recon and his dad were doing trail magic! Dinner!

8/ after trail magic dinner, we were directed to go up the hill to the private Angeles Crest camp. (?) "Just go up the hill, they're expecting you" (?) Apparently the guys doing trail magic had gone up there to try to get signal earlier and the camp people told them to send any hikers up as they have open bunk cabins (showers and laundry) and leftover Easter food (no cost) to share. Great way to end a bizarre hike!

AI6YR Ben 3h ago

@jds I love the spring at Little Jimmy! And the forest service stoves (on a cold night).

@ai6yr it's such a great camp, thankful it didn't burn!

M.S. Bellows, Jr.3h ago

@ai6yr @jds I never knew there were such things! How wonderful!

AI6YR Ben 3h ago

@msbellows @jds Once I made pizza on top of one of them. (that's sourdough I had going while hiking, in my backpack). Note: probably I was a bear attractant 🤪

@ai6yr @msbellows @jds aww nice of you to take your sourdough for a walk. So many people think because yeasties are so small and fit in a jar they don't need any enrichment :(

Sky, Cozy Goth Prince of Cats 2h ago

@ater @ai6yr @msbellows @jds and here I thought enrichment was how you got nutritional yeast

Anarchist Trans Ace Pirate 2h ago

@ater @ai6yr @msbellows @jds

I saw a post where someone was talking about their sourdough starter like it was a child, so I said "congratulations on your sourdough baby. have you planned its first birthday? it'll be lit". they liked that very much 🥰

John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️2h ago

@ai6yr @msbellows @jds mmm...pizza-stuffed human, like a turducken for bears.

M.S. Bellows, Jr.2h ago

@ai6yr @jds You are a madman. A beautiful, beautiful madman.

AI6YR Ben 2h ago

@msbellows @jds You should have seen all the other backpackers with their dehydrated meals salivating as they walked past the camp, the smell of pepperoni and fresh pizza wafting through camp, lol.

Raymond Douglas 2h ago

@jds I love these threads, great outing.

randomized 11h ago

@jds
Love the concept of trail angels, but the harassment/stalking part ?!? Is it common ?

@randomized unfortunately something that happens anywhere there are people

Olivier Forget 2d ago

@jds Wow, that's the 2? I had no idea. Thank you for sharing.

Maria Langer | 📝🛥️💎2d ago

@jds @rpmik Took me a while to figure out exactly where this was. There's a highway 2 where I live in Washington state that also crosses the Pacific crest Trail (or at least I think it does). There was a washout near Leavenworth that was just as bad as the ones you're showing but they miraculously fixed it within a few months.

@mlanger @rpmik the parallels are great. I'm curious how long it will take. I've seen this road stay closed multiple summers in a row in the past with less damage. Poor thing really takes a beating every winter. Every fire makes the subsequent water damage worse.

@jds Whoah! 😳