Day 25

May 3

Mile 364.5 - Mile 369.5

We slept in a little there at the campground and rolled out of our sleeping bags around 8. It took us just as much time to get ready to leave as Rechelle and Trevor, who had a full camp set up complete with kitchen. It was nice to have a leisurely morning and we munched on some delicious blueberries that Rechelle gave us. 

We had to leave eventually because today was town day! We had meant to get a bit closer yesterday but the trail magic was well worth the stop last night. We had about 5 miles to go to get to highway 2, where we stuck out our thumbs and immediately got a hitch to Wrightwood.

Morning walk to highway 2.

Along the way we went thru a ski area that had grass! We haven't seen very much grass at all on this trip. It was kinda novel. 

Once in Wrightwood, our first stop was Mountain Hardware - not to be confused with Mountain Hardwear, where Mike used to work. Needless to say, we were amused by the irony. Anyway, the hardware store had a nice little deck out back where they let hikers hang out and do hiker things. There was also a hiker box (we love hiker boxes)!

Hiker area.

We raided the hiker box and figured out our town plan. The first order of business was finding a place to stay for the night. There was a motel or two but we knew they were very pricey and we wanted to avoid that cost. We ended up walking about .5 miles to the edge if town to check out Camp Wrightwood, where we read there were hot showers and bunks for $10.

Walking back to Camp Wrightwood after grocery shopping. 

After we showered and washed our clothes in the sink, we headed back to town to get some food at a pizzeria and meet with some people to play pool. On the way there, a fellow hiker told us that where we were going to meet for pool actually had a free Mexican buffet as an early Cinco De Mayo special. We changed our plans and headed there instead. We totally gorged ourselves on the food and couldn't believe our luck for finding such a good deal.

Carnage.

We ended up staying for quite a while, playing pool and talking to some locals until 11pm.

A friendly game of pool.

Afterwards, it was back to Camp Wrightwood to get some sleep. 

Mike trying to sleep in the bunks while I take flash photography of him. You can't see, but right above him "I Love Brian" was written on the bunk above. I thought it was funny.

Night!