Episode 55 - PCT Update #3
Idyllwild —> Big Bear (+ UCLA x2)
Day #: 22
Total Miles Hiked: 280
Miles remaining: 2370
Percentage done: 10.6%
It has been an EXCITING few weeks since we’ve last had a PCT update, and my oh my, what HASN’T happened? We made it to Big Bear (10% done already!), adventured back to UCLA to surprise Finlay at his grand debut of the co-op musical, and figured out that LA public transit is actually really… good?! The train system here is surprisingly banger. Europe, watch out.
As always, please feel free to send me letters, postcards, or care packages! I get so so excited when I go to the post office and see that I’ve got MAIL. The next stop will be here:
PCT Hiker — Dennis Gavrilenko
3631 Smith Ave
Action, CA 93510-9998
Let’s go!
Day 13, 5/23/2025:
Extraordinarily painful 8 miles with ~4500 feet of climbing. Today we summited Mt. San Jacinto from the Humber Park Trailhead, and it was straight uphill the entire way.
The day started off with a lovely morning in Idyllwild after the second of two much-needed rest days in town. Brooke and I did some errands in the morning and wrote our blogs in the town library, and planned to hitchhike to the trail and summit San Jacinto pretty much right after.
As per usual, however, the blogs took much longer to finish than expected (much like CS projects), and only actually wrapped them up around 1. Also in the library we saw Zoe, who we met yesterday after the dinner with our tramily on the walk back to the fuel transfer demo. What a coincidence.
Zoe was also heading up San Jacinto today, so we agreed to meet up with her around 2 to try and hitch up to the trailhead. While waiting, I got myself one last Diet Coke from the store, and enjoyed my final ice-cold drink before heading back into the woods.
Also while waiting, I discovered that the library actually sold books (I didn’t know libraries did that), and crazy enough, they were all under $1 in price. Even better, they had a clearance rank of 10¢ books, and even better than that, PCT hikers were allowed to take one for free!
And that’s how I ended up with The Transit of Venus in my backpack, already extremely heavy with the 14 lb watermelon weighing it down. In case you missed it, I joked last night that I’d bring a watermelon to summit, and decided this morning to actual do it. The people demand it! This ascent is going to be brutal.
At 2, we met with Zoe, and began looking around the parking lot for a ride 3 miles up the mountain. One guy couldn’t give us a ride but did give us 2 grapefruit (so much fruit today!), but in an epic twist of fate, the very SECOND car stopped to drive us up. This ride bride thing is so real, and this time I had not one, but two, brides to take me where I needed to go. Brooke and Zoe, coming in clutch!
Our driver, Brenna, was so nice, and even rearranged her entire car to fit us after packing it full from a grocery haul just before. She had moved to Idyllwild in 2019 from San Diego and formerly worked as a school administrator, and now subs for principals in San Diego when the school district needs help. I didn’t even know principals had subs! She apparently had to suspend, and later expel, a fourth grader for being too much of a menace and bringing a fake weapon to school. What a life.
She dropped us off right at the trailhead where we hiked into two days before, and we were off. Brenna sent us off with the classic “I’m living vicariously through you” and zoomed back down the mountain. This trail magic is real and honestly unbelievable. Brenna, you’re our hero!
And who do we immediately see at the trailhead parking lot? Anthony Taylor, the guy from the grocery store who wanted to split carrots with us and gave Brooke her trail name. What another crazy coincidence! Brooke and Zoe headed up the trail, and I stayed back to chat with Anthony for 20 minutes about life. He was sitting in his van life van listening to sea shanties, sewing a tent he had made himself (he’s experimenting with his gear before stating a SoBo hike in July), invited me inside, and was generally being a hippie. He loved the fact I was carrying a watermelon up the mountain, and straight away proposed the trail name “Watermelon Man” for me. I quite like it! I’ll have to marinate on it and see if I accept.
He then typed the song name “Watermelon Man” into my phone, was confused by the Cyrillic alphabet, and was excited when I told him I speak Russian. This then devolved into him telling me about the Russian thru-hiker girl he met 4 days ago and the two hour conversation they had about mushroom hunting. Looks like I have a hiker to catch up to and have a mushroom-related conversation with.
I love PCT thru-hikers. So interesting! So fun!
After saying bye to Anthony, I started up the trail and began immediately regretting my watermelon decision. My pack literally weighs about 50 lbs, and I feel like a Nepalese Sherpa. This is crazy.
I also got stopped by some forest rangers who wanted to check my PCT permit, making that three checks so far. They really can’t do anything if I don’t have a permit though, except kinda just tell me to go home. lol. Mt. San Jacinto, here I come!
Update on the way up to Saddle Junction: I ran into Alyssa and Alex from earlier in the thru-hike, and they’re looking forward to spending two nights in town. Alyssa was super excited to see Mayor Max, Alex wasn’t. I asked why, and it turns out Max’s owner is in the Church of Scientology and uses Max’s donation for who knows what. Ohhhhhhhh shit!!!!!!!!!!!
Continued on up the mountain with Brooke and Zoe, high spirits the entire way. We’re really high up in elevation here, well over 10000 feet, and the lower oxygen level was definitely starting to hit. We filtered some DELICIOUS alpine water around 9500 feet, then was carried up the mountain by some great music. Finally, I was at the summit hut! 10650 feet! A super cute stone hut with 4 bunk beds and tons of coziness inside.
Flo and Pablo were there at the hut, waiting for me, and were both extremely impressed and shocked that I’d actually carried the watermelon all the up. The shock on Pablo’s face, and his subsequent laughter, made the entire melon trek worth it. Brooke and Zoe arrived a few minutes later, and the 5 of us finished hiking uphill to reach the summit at 10834 feet, where Sam and Skylar were waiting. The entire dinner gang from yesterday, ready to devour the melon! 🍉
Sam and Skylar were stoked to see us up there, and the look on Sam’s face when he saw I had, in fact, actually carried a big ass watermelon all the way up was priceless. They were stunned to see it, but got over it quickly and were super duper excited. I cut open the watermelon with my little pocket knife, we took some summit photos, and all began devouring the melon. Such an amazing time, and such beautiful views. The sky was really bleeding over the familiar LA mountains.
Back at the summit hut (actually 200 feet below the summit), we cooked some delicious dinner, brooke and Pablo chatted in Spanish, and then brooke decided to paint the nails of everyone in the cabin. Surprisingly, everyone let her, and were excited to receive such great service from “Backcountry Brooke’s front country salon”. Brooke had bought some nail polish in Idyllwild to paint other thru-hikers’ nails, and our summit hutmates were the first clients (victims) tonight. She’s invited all the men she meets to have their nails painted to show “how comfortable they are in their masculine.” Surprisingly, that line works 100% of the time.
So much laughter and such a great time with our tramily today. Life is good!
Day 14, 5/24:
Today we did 19.5 miles with 700 feet of climbing. More importantly, there was also 9000 feet of descent. Yikes.
Our summit hut cabin got up at 5 am to see the sunrise from the summit, and collectively groaned when the alarm went off. Oh well. We have sunrise to see!
It was beautiful. So cool to see the sun both set and rise from the same super tall peak. Brooke and I brought up her sleeping pad and bag when sitting on the granite boulder, and it made the cold a little bit more tolerable.
Back at the cabin, everyone started packing up to begin the day’s veeeeeeery long descent. 25 miles, 10000 feet of pretty much straight downhill. Everyone was out of the summit hut by 7, but brooke and I decided to have a chill morning in and slept until 8:30.
At 9:30, we began descending, and boy was it cold! We were also running into a ton of day hikers who were kicking off Memorial Day weekend (I had no idea what day of the week it was), and chatted with some other thru-hikers who camped just below the summit. We also stumbled upon the coolest Eagle Scout service project EVER, a wooden pit toilet built in the middle of the woods. After shoveling out the snow blocking the door, I left a nice present for my fellow Eagle Scout. (Translation: I took a shit)
The rest of the day was spent descending. Some sections steep, others more gradual, all mostly downhill. It’s pretty crazy how different the temperatures are on different parts of the mountain; just 4000 feet from the summit, it’s already so much warmer than at the top. Seems crazy now how cold it was last night!
After a lovely lunch break at a campsite with a picnic table (a potentially amazing place for an Excursion Club trip), brooke went on ahead while I went up a little side hill to find a geocache at the local peak. It was an easy find, and I was only the fourth person to ever find it! Only 4 finds in total since it was hidden in 2017.
More switchbacks down the mountain as we overlooked Palm Springs and the I-10 freeway pass with all its windmills. Really cool to be overlooking familiar landscapes from high above; reminds me of flying into LAX or SFO. Beautiful landscapes of pine forests and great vistas of the north face of San Jacinto Peak.
Saw three lizards sunbathing on the same rock. Nice and toasty today🦎
Today we also reached 200 miles on trail! As with every milestone increment of 100 miles, there was a lovely rock formation on the trail spelling “200”. And then another one. And another one. And another one. 4 trail markers in total within a half mile stretch, all claiming to be the true 200-mile marker. lol
Made it to camp with Pablo and Flo, had the best chat ever while setting up our tent and cooking dinner. Introduced them to the phrase, “you’ve yee’d your last haw”, they were a bit confused because they’re French. They also commented on gbs frequency of hikers greeting each other with “Howdy”. Brooke’s a big fan!
Very delicious chow mein and tuna dinner I got for free from a random lady in Idyllwild outside Nomad Ventures. Super clutch.
Tomorrow we’re seeing the famous rusty pipe that everyone’s been commenting on Far Out on, then we’re trying to finesse some free coffee from the San Jacinto Hiker Haven at the bottom of the mountain. As I told Pablo, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
We’ll see how that goes. Another day, another slay.
Day 15, 5/25:
Easy 9 miles today with minimal climbing, mostly descending. And excitingly, an unexpected day of relaxation at Brooke’s grandma’s house in Palm Desert!
Woke up nice and early and left camp by 7:30. We had very little water left, and the goal was to get to the first water source 5 miles away before it got too hot and have our oatmeal breakfast at the faucet.
The descent down was a huge, very gradual switchback. Super easy. We made it to the first rusty pipe (not that impressive), then to the water faucet a quarter mile away.
And at this faucet, Brooke shared some tremendously exciting news — while descending, brooke called her grandma and was offered to stay at her house with me and Brooke’s other PCT friends. At the faucet were our PCT friends Zoe, Pablo, and Flo, who all quickly and very excitedly accepted the invitation to come to Palm Desert.
To grandmother’s house we go!
With our waters refilled and our spirits high, we finished the descent down the alluvial fan and onto the desert plain. It was still a (very windy) 4 miles to the I-10, but the promise of a warm bed and shower, plus some ice-cold-Gatorade-cooler-in-the-desert trail magic, got us to the road in no time. We also saw a cargo train heading inland with 193 cabins. I counted them all.
At the I-10 and underneath the railroad bridge, there were some more PCT festivities — someone had left a bunch of cardboard signs up for hikers to sign, and so a bunch of us were sitting in the shade and relaxing. Along come some more trail angels, who offer us some delicious sodas to enjoy. This trail magic thing is insane.
There were three of them, and they offered to give two of us a ride to wherever we needed to go. I volunteered to head to Palm Desert in their car, and Brooke et al took an Uber over to the desert house.
And boy, was the company on that drive epic! The driver was British, and himself had thru-hiked the PCT in 2021 with a 13 lb pack and eating only 1400 calories a day. And earlier in his life, he’d even walked to the South Pole from the ocean, a 2-month expedition that only a few hundred people had ever completed. He was out there in the crazy wind, pulling a 180 lb sled 15 miles a day with only one resupply a month in. Crazy.
One of the other passengers had helped set up Khan Academy’s India operations as their nonprofit accountant, and the other had spent two years solo backpacking the world. 4 months in Europe, 6 months in Asia, 6 months in South America, and now she was finishing up Central America. Wicked.
I spent the whole ride asking them all these questions about them and telling them about Emily, AI, and Emily + AI (Roboflow and Cursor). Very nice time. They dropped me right off at the entrance to Nonie’s house, and then they zoomed off!
Brooke met me at the gate, and walked me all the way to Nonie’s house. Absolutely heavenly. Spent the rest of the day relaxing and not doing much except a grocery run to Ralph’s (iykyk), cooking lasagna for dinner, swimming in the pool, chatting with everyone, and watching YouTube videos on the huge TV. I could get used to this.
Also, the main bathroom had a scale in it and we all weighed ourselves to see how much weight we’ve lost.
It’s only been two weeks, but I’m already 10 pounds lighter. Crazy. I’m 175 pounds now and my shorts are so much looser.
Day 16, 5/26:
19 miles with 4000 feet of climbing. We’re back in business.
After our heavenly day relaxing in Palm Desert, it was time to head back to reality. And by reality I mean the trail.
We had ordered the Uber to pick us up at 6:30 for a 7 am trailhead arrival, and it was quite brutal leaving the warm bed and getting ready. Fortunately, we’d all mostly packed the night before, so we only really needed to eat breakfast and finish cleaning the house.
Uber driver was super nice, and dropped us off right at the trail and zoomed off to the horizon. The contrast between where we woke up and where we now were was absolutely night and day — before we were in a pristine, beautiful, golf-course-side home, now we were in the middle of nowhere with basically tumbleweeds blowing around. At least it felt that way.
The highlight of the day was walking through all the windmill farms. Makes a lot of sense that it’s so windy, since these giant fans here are blowing so much air. Lots of climbing, and pretty hot conditions. Fortunately, the breeze kept me decently cool.
Had lunch at the Whitewater Preserve just a half mile off trail, and it was lovely. Tons of picnic tables and nice grass, plus running water in the bathrooms and potable faucets on the visitor center. Perfect place to take a two hour nap, which I did. Can confirm it’s the best.
Carried on all the way to our campsite along Mission Creek, another 8ish miles away from the Preserve. Called Mama and Papa from the ridge when there was service, chilled for a bit, and set up camp for the night. Had delicious stovetop stuffing for dinner, it’s my first time having it and it was so amazing and I’m 100% having it again on trail. Can’t believe I’ve never heard of nor tried it before.
Exciting news! Getting a backpacking quilt from Mama and Papa as a graduation present! Hooray! Спасибо!
Brutal day tomorrow, it’s going to be straight uphill for 20 miles along a heavily eroded dry riverbed. Far Out comments mention that most of the physical trail has been washed out. Brilliant!
Day 17, 5/27:
20 miles today with 6500 feet of climbing. Oh. My. Goodness! Most physically demanding by far but also one of the most fun.
Had a very nice and very needed slow morning today. Enjoyed my oatmeal and tea along the creek bed, then left at 9 to catch brooke who’d left at 8.
The first 15 miles of the day were straight uphill, from ~3000 to ~8000 feet of elevation. Even better, they were along the sandy bed of a dry river, making the going even slower and more tiring. The scenery looked like this:
I actually loved it. It reminded me a lot of my Denali backpacking on my Alaska trip last summer, and really required me to focus on my foot placement and trail selection for our. I was focused and locked in on trail in a way I hadn’t felt for a while, and it was very, very nice. The few parts of the trail that weren’t completely eroded were extremely steep and overgrown, making it even more challenging. Very eroded trail on the edge of very precarious cliffs. At some point, I decided to just walk through the stream to cool off my socks, shoes, and feet, and that was definitely the right decision.
Spent a few hours walking with Brooke, but most of the day I was by myself and in silence. Ariv had recommended I try out a day of solo silence to see what would happen, and I’ve found that my brain becomes, surprisingly, completely empty. I’m not even really thinking, just walking in a zen state. Sometimes I randomly remember the movie Kin-Dza-Dza and the word КЦ, which is how the aliens in the film say “match” and became a slang word in the Soviet Union. I then say “КЦ!», chuckle, and carry on. Not really sure what’s happening to my brain at this point.
Fixed a damaged trail sign today. I am a saint. Also saw (and heard) and massive beehive in a tree.
Really nice lunch with brooke today, too. We sat on her sleeping pad in the shade of a large tree and ate our delicious Parmesan, salami, tortilla, and Lays sandwiches and had a relaxing and pleasant time.
I have seen so many lizards and cairns today. 🦎
Update: we are back in the land of pine trees and pinecones!
I have had quite a genius idea while walking in silence today. Basically, Brooke had told me about how her friend Anna hates drunk driving but does wish that you can drive down the PCH with a nice cold beer in hand. While walking in silence today, I remembered that they have 0% beers that taste like beers but actually have no alcohol and I’m just imagining myself drinking one of those while driving along the levies from Antioch to Sacramento and that honestly just sounds like the most heavenly time in the world. These random hiker thoughts are crazy.
Water was also a big worry today. Not much of it, but enough to survive for the day. Big water carry required for tomorrow, that will not be too pleasant.
Took a break to take my socks and shoes off and lay down with my bare feet in the cold creek. Wrote this blog. Absolutely heavenly.
Made it to the summit of Mission Creek around 5:30, brooke, Zoe, and several others were already there. Decided to camp here for tonight and push a big day tomorrow on flatter terrain. Really happy with that decision, my legs were absolutely exhausted from today and definitely needed the break. Really pretty and cozy campsite among the pine trees, here they use pinecones to mark out the different campsites!
Had Idaho Potatoes packet today for dinner, it was alright. 10/10 for weight and cost, 5/10 for taste. I prefer the stovetop stuffing any day. There is a picnic table here, which is super clutch for cooking, and sitting in general.
Chatted with the others at the campsite, great hiker camaraderie here! The Swedish couple went to bed at 7 (!), us at around 8:30 after a long, long day of uphill trekking. What a day!
Day 18, 5/28:
Absolutely crazy day! 27 miles with 3400 feet of climbing. New distance record!! Also, we’re now officially 10% done with the trail, we just reached the sign that tells us that’s the case. That’s crazy. That’s legit. 10% is a major, major milestone!
My roommate from UCLA, Finlay, has been writing a musical about the co-op for the last few months, and the grand debut is planned for Friday. So the general plan for me and brooke was to get as far as we could on the trail before dipping from said trail, going to UCLA, and surprising Finlay at the grand opening.
And what that practically means is that the goal was to get as far into Big Bear as possible, hitchhike into Big Bear, and then figure out someway to make it to UCLA from there.
So let’s do it one step at a time. Today’s goal was to get as close to Big Bear as possible without actually making it to Big Bear. That meant hiking a full marathon all the way to Highway 18, and camping as the nearby tent site to the road before carrying on early the next morning. Sounds like a pretty epic plan.
Walking a marathon in a day is no joke, and requires a significant commitment of time. Fortunately, time is something I’m in no short supply of these days, so off we went to Big Bear! Brooke left at 5:45, me at 6:45, and we were off to put away some mega mileage.
It was an absolutely lovely morning — hiking that early means the sun is just rising in the trees, the birds are chirping beautifully, and the sun’s rays are golden and light. It really is stunning. I walked in high spirits the entire morning, and caught up with Brooke, Zoe, and the Swedes around 9ish at the Coon Creek Cabin. Crazy name, I know.
Rest of the day was another perfect hiking day. I pushed on ahead of Zoe and Brooke (who were having a “yapathon” all morning, I could hear Zoe’s laughing a mile away), stopped for a lovely lunch along the creek, found two geocaches hidden in 2001 and 2002, saw the beginnings of Big Bear Lake, called Junae about 11 times due to crazy service issues on my end, and made it to the final campsite at 6. Wow. What a long ass sentence that was.
Brooke and I were absolutely starving, and since we were so close to the road, figured we should order a pizza delivery to our campsite. That ended up being $50, so we said “yeah no thanks” instead and decided to head to the road anyway to see if there was any trail magic at the intersection. I had a hunch that there would be, particularly since the road intersection was a very major one.
AND MY PREDICTION WAS CORRECT! There was trail magic! A huge coolers full of cold drinks, and even better, strawberries and raspberries. OH MY GOODNESSES THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY EVER
There were also two hikers there, one slightly off putting white man and a very nice Japanese lady. We chatted with them for 30 minutes, ate all the berries, put down a cold ginger ale, and headed back to the campsite. With the berries alleviating our desire for civilized food, we were satisfied with eating our camp food again for dinner. That was delicious, and another early night to bed.
My legs are def starting to feel it.
Day 19, 5/29:
11 miles today with 1100 feet of climbing. We’re back in civilization, and back in LA!
The goal for the evening was to be back at UCLA, and boy oh boy, have we succeeded in the most adventurous way possible.
We had a chill 10-mile morning, then descended down from the mountains into Big Bear to visit the post office and get food. Post office visit was amazing (another care package from my family yay!!!!), and brooke managed to get us a ride to the restaurant we were headed to from ANOTHER post office visitor, Patricia, a grandma backpacker from town. Slay.
She dropped us off right at the Grizzly Manor Cafe, an amazing restaurant with delicious food of massive portion sizes, even better coffee, and a PCT hiker discount. Best of all, Pablo and Flo were there, finishing up brunch! We had the best chat ever and just laughed so much. I love these dudes already. I also found the geocache hidden inside the cafe. Lit.
And all now that was left to do was get to UCLA. No one could pick us up with traffic being so bad and Sasha already having driven to Idyllwild, so of course we decided to hitchhike. We took the free bus to the western edge of Big Bear Lake, walked over to a nice hitchhiking spot, stuck our thumbs out, and waited.
And who stopped for us? Aldo! Mexican, friendly, and driving a Toyota Camry with the check engine light flashing and 195,000 miles on the odometer. This man had a dentist appointment in San Bernardino and had never picked up hitchhikers before, but for some reason decided to stop for us for an hour drive and drop us off near the train station. I’m consistently blown away by how well this whole hitchhiking thing works tbh. Still so crazy to me.
We had a pleasant conversation about Aldo’s life and travels (he really hyped up Edmonton), but most of that car ride was spent hanging on for dear life as he flew down the Big Bear mountains and yeeted the sharp turns at twice the speed limit.
Jesus take the wheel. Oh my. We should’ve walked!
Once we San Bernardino, Brooke and I booked it the mile to the train station, hopped aboard, and were off to Union Station. It was actually really an eye-opening experience because 1) so much of what I learned in my urban geography class was true (especially about air pollution and heat islands), and 2) I was like “wtf how does LA have trains”. I was even more surprised when I downloaded the train app and found a student ticket in there I got for free years ago. Life is good!
Once at Union Station, we walked around the lovely Olivera Street, passed through some sketch neighborhoods, and made it onto the bus heading to UCLA. Right now we’re on the I-10, I’m about to eat some banger co-op food, and I’m gonna have the best day off EVER in Westwood.
I. Can’t. WAIT!
Oh my goodness, the first night back in Westwood was better than I could’ve ever hoped. After waking up in a tent in the mountains above Big Bear, it was such a culture shock stepping off the bus in Westwood later that afternoon and seeing all the normal UCLA figures: business bros dressed in full suits, white chicks wearing no clothing on the way to Rocco’s, stressed out Asian pre-meds. It was unbelievable.
Back at the co-op, Finlay was literally in complete shock when we walked into the room unannounced and unexpectedly. He had no idea we were coming back for his musical, and it took about 5 seconds for him to register that we were there, standing in the room. Amazing. Caught up with so many great stories of the last few months (especially pants vs trousers in Kirkcaldy), organized a super fun and wholesome Blokus night, and got pressed by some Russian co-opers who bullied me and Sasha’s accents. Wtf
It’s so good to be back!
Day 20, 5/30:
What a truly amazing day back in Westwood, and who didn’t I see! Spent the day catching up with college friends, buying more groceries for tomorrow (we’re heading back to Big Bear to continue hiking), and relaxing at the co-op. Wow, I’ve missed this place.
Great açaí bowl with Katherine (she has so many extra swipes so we PACKED those bowls with toppings), chatted with Dylan and Junae, and just had the best time ever. Junae was very impressed with the JetBoil and tent set-up skills, and was blown away by how quickly I made her a cup of tea. I love my JetBoil.
The big event of the night (and the main reason for coming back to UCLA this weekend) was the grand debut of Finlay’s co-op musical, which he famously wrote while on the train to New Orleans in April and co-directed with Lise and Ana from our hallway.
It was fantastic. The costumes were hilarious, the backdrops were lovely, and everyone was just having so much fun. There were so many inside jokes and digs at the co-op, and I couldn’t stop laughing and smiling. Brooke got so excited during one scene that she flung her hands up, yeeting the cup of red wine all over my clothes. No worries, they’re getting super dirty soon anyway. I’m so glad we made it out to Westwood to see the musical, it was so worth it.
Gave Finlay, Lise, and Ana their TJ’s flowers as a huge congrats for a successful debut, gossiped some more in the hallway, and went off to an early bed. We’re back to Big Bear tomorrow!
Day 21, 5/31:
Woke up super early to drive back up to Big Bear with Brooke and Hudson. Hudson, you’re my hero. Once in Big Bear, we played a game of forest Blokus (so nice even tho I lost), and set off on the trail. Spotted a funny platypus sign that I won’t elaborate on here. Iykyk
Long story short, a mile into the hike, I decided I really wanted to go back to UCLA with Hudson because (1) I really wanted to finish my E-Wing Gallery blog on a laptop, and (2) I missed Westwood and wanted more closure from college. Happy to report that both counts succeeded TREMENDOUSLY. Gave brooke maybe backpacking stove and knife, she caught up to Zoe, and I headed back to UCLA with Hudson. Stopped by his house in Altadena for his sister’s graduation brunch (the food was so good and the decor was the best I’ve ever seen), drank the tastiest coffee I’ve ever had from Hudson’s mom (the foam was unbelievably delicious), chatted with Hudson’s Google Gemini dad, and wrote the first half of my E-Wing blog. Amazing.
Scenic drive back to UCLA, and an early night in. The goal is to finish the blog tomorrow morning!
Day 22, 6/1:
Spent today finishing up my E-Wing blog (really funny recording the plaques audio guides at 8 am on the Midvale sidewalk), hanging out with Gilbert, and generally chilling in Westwood. Also saw the second (and final) showing of the co-op musical, which was even funnier the second time.
Food wise, Katherine had logged into her Mobile Order account on my phone, and I got Rende twice in one day. I love my steak burrito bowls! Also saw some TBG freshies there (Gitali, Owen, Sri, Aman), who barely recognized me my buzzed head and glasses. I’m basically going incognito out here.
So so so happy that my E-Wing Gallery blog is FINALLY done. I’ve been dreaming about finishing it for months now, and am so happy to close that chapter of my life. About time.
Day 23, 6/2:
It was time to head back to reality, and back to the trail. I’m 50 miles behind Brooke, and need to hike 90 miles over the next three days to make it to Wrightwood by the evening of the 4th. Godspeed. I’m so fucking excited to do this mega hike.
Got up around 6, took the early commuter bus to Union Station, train to San Bernardino, and the bus up to Big Bear. Honestly super impressed that I can take public transit across all of SoCal and make it to Big Bear in just 5 hours, particularly by train. The services are all really nice, and Union Station is stunningly beautiful. The funny anecdote of the day was that I was at the Union Station Starbucks getting a normal black Americano and dispensed the automatic hand dispenser ~150 times to fill up my mini hand sanitizer bottle for the trail. Everyone in the Starbucks was looking at me and wondering wtf was happening. You gotta do whacha ya gotta do.
Called Maxim and family to wish him the happiest 13th birthday (yay!), Joe and Emma to catch up, Federico, and Ariv. So amazing hearing everyone’s voices and hearing all their news, it’s crazy how we’re all on adventures these days but they’re all so different. The post-grad life divergences are vast, but so so interesting.
Also had to call the wonderful Contra Costa County Courthouse because I got summoned for jury duty on June 26th. Fortunately, they accepted my excuse of “I’m backpacking for 5 months” as a reason to postpone until October. Lit.
I’m currently on the Mountain Transit bus back up to Big Bear, and am slightly worried about the sounds the engine is making. Let’s hope this massive vehicle can make it up the hill.
Update from an hour later: we made it up the hill! Still alive, baby. This makes it four times in three days I’ve been on this highway, and I feel like I know every twist and turn of it already. Driver said “where you going hiker” and dropped me off right at the transit center. Lit.
Took another bus to the post office to pick up Hamburger Helper’s letter, hiked over to the trailhead, and I’m off. I have Brooke to catch, and she has a 50-mile head start!
Let’s do this fucking thing. Best mode, locking in 😈
What an epic episode from the pct :)
The hand sanitizer thing is so thru-hiker I love it!