Day 24: Generosity Abounds

May 24, 2015 (5th Re-Ration – Wrightwood)
Campsite on ridge above Cajon Pass (352.0) to Hwy 2-Wrightwood (369.5)
17.5 PCT miles today
384.3 miles total
Today’s Elevation Gain/Loss: + 5,211 ft, – 3,086 ft

Days that end at the home of a kind and generous trail angel are always the most memorable. Today we were lucky enough to find ourselves at the home of Jeff in Wrightwood, where we showered, dried out our tent, did our laundry and ate tons of delicious food. Basically, a place where we’ve had the chance to completely refresh after 5 days on trail.

We started out nice and early this morning, excited to get to town and have more time to rest our feet. The hike continued up for another 10 miles before finally leveling out a bit and dropping us onto a beautiful highway trailhead called “Inspiration Point”. Along the way we met lots of nice day hikers (it’s a popular hiking spot and Memorial Day weekend) and also ran into more “thru-hikers” who had left their gear in Wrightwood and were “slack-packing” the trail backwards to Cajon Pass to avoid all the climbing. It was a bit…perplexing, to see our fellow PCTers avoiding the climb…but “hike your own hike”. At least, that’s what we have to keep telling ourselves.

We got super lucky at Inspiration Point and didn’t have to hitch at all since a trail angel, Devilfish, was waiting right there with his van. We got into the adorable and super hiker-friendly town of Wrightwood in no time, got in touch with Jeff, and hitched to his house. He wasn’t home yet, but told us to come on in and make ourselves at home. For us, that meant get clean, unpack, and then start in on the entire box of Captain Crunch cereal and a quart of whole milk that had been passed onto us by another very nice hiker. It was delicious and the consensus was that we could have eaten more.

This evening Jeff, his kids (super nice people in their 20’s) and a bunch of other hikers (some of whom we had seen slack-packing on the trail earlier) all came home and we spent one of our favorite nights of the PCT eating, chatting, and listening to good music (we had a few musicians in our midst). Jeff turned out to be incredibly generous and even shared his fish and rice dinner with us, topped off with brownies and ice cream. As I write this, I am being serenaded to sleep by the music still being played upstairs. But this hiker is tired and finally has a full belly, so I’m calling it a night and thanking my lucky stars for finding this perfect home away from home.