Yesterday, on May 4, we hiked 25 kilometers to Interstate 15 from Lake Silverwood to Cajon Pass.
We departed late, at 2:20 pm, because we wanted to savor our time at the lake. It's a real pity: there are so many great places tempting us to tarry! But the daily stint must be adhered to.
We reached Interstate 15 around 9 pm, immediately heading for the nearby McDonald's, like many hikers do. We'd been looking forward to this, imagining the most diverse menus during the hike. Despite the nice waitperson attending our order, we felt a bit like aliens with our backpacks and dusty clothes. Several people asked us what we were doing. None of them had ever heard of the PCT, but everyone thought it was a crazy or great thing to do. We stayed there till the place closed at midnight. Olli overdid things, however, and felt ill for an hour afterward eating. His calorie count for burger, fries, Chicken Nuggets, ice cream, milkshake, and Coke (plus a refill) - everything large, of course - came to 4000. Sabine's calorie count: 2200. The pleasant acquaintanceship with Artemis continued outside. He sat at the entrance to McDonald's in a little red speedster (with his oversized dog "Wolf" on the passenger seat, whom he'd picked up at his parents' house in LA) and spontaneously offered to take us to Las Vegas. It was tempting, but we declined. Artemis works in stage construction for Kiss, Aerosmith, and Robbie Williams, among others.
Stopping at the gas station next door, we stocked up on a couple of 1-liter cans of beer.
We still needed to locate a place to sleep. Because Cajon Junction is located at the intersection of an interstate and 3 railway lines, the noise is deafening. So we hiked another 3 kilometers to escape the worst of it. Since there's no waterhole till Wrightwood, 28 km away, we replenished our water supplies at a creek that runs under the interstate. Extremely spooky! Around 2 am we found a nice camping spot, where we hearkened to the endlessly long freight trains' nocturnal concert.
Next morning, Sunday, May 5, we headed out at 9 am, despite the short night. We faced a strenuous incline: a 1500-meter altitude difference, spread out over 28 kilometers – with a lot of ups and downs – quite a slog! We managed 23 km and at the end of the day we found a terrific campsite at about 2000 meters, with a panorama of snow-covered mountains.
Monday we face the last 10 kilometer incline before finally arriving in Wrightwood.
Pictures