|
April 25, 2025
|
Rt. 2 (Inspiration Point) to Rt 2 (Vincent Gap)
|
|
Mile 369.4-374
|
1:43 (moving) / 2:05 (total)
|
|
|
Max 7,505 feet (+635 / -1,390)
|
PCT Day 27
This short hike happened with spur of the moment planning. Friday afternoon I realized I had nothing going on all weekend so was perfect for an escape to the mountains. All my usual suspects for PCT segments were not available, so I reached out to another one of my buddies that we've hiked a lot together and he was also free on Saturday so the ball was rolling.
Day 28 would be a longer 12 mile hike over Mt. Baden Powell so instead of tacking on an extra 4.5 miles to that hike, I wanted to complete the relatively short/easy section from where I left off last time and where the next hike began. Starting point would be easily reached right off of Rt. 2 called Inspiration Point and finishing point would also be easily accessible right off of Rt. 2 called Vincent Gap.
Next came checking road conditions. Earlier rain storms has wiped out many sections of Rt. 2 in this area. As luck with have it the road is closed at Vincent Gap so we could reach both parking areas. It's not terribly far from home, so we could drive two cars. Plan drop off one care at Vicent Gap then backtrack to Inspiration Point where we would start the hike.
It's been so nice all spring, I didn't even give 2nd thoughts about checking the weather, but was curious of the temperature at elevation and learned there was about 39% chance of rain by early afternoon, so morning seemed to be our best option. The hike wasn't that long so even if we got a little rained on I think we could manage so we both still said thumbs up for an a.m. hike.
Packing was minimal, after all it was less than 5 miles. It's been a while since Juno joined me for a PCT section and the terrain was perfect. He knows the word "hike" and after I spoke that in the morning he was running around like crazy with nervous excitement because he knew he was going (or not being left behind). It wasn't raining when I woke but the skies were already a little ominous, especially on the drive and the closer I got to the mountains the darker the clouds became.
The plan was to meet in Wrightwood, pick up a Big Pines day pass for the parking areas and follow each other to the trail head. It was noticeably colder at Wrightwood and we still had to drive up a little higher in elevation. Visibility was ok up until we reached Inspiration Point, then it got really cloudy and couldn't see very far all the way to Vincent Gap. Mt. Baden Powell was completely under heavy cloud cover and we couldn't see. We parked at Vincent Gap and carpooled back to Inspiration Point. I brought the two seater and of course had the top down. I had the heat blasting and the seat heaters on to stay warm. It was little cozy in the car with two adults and Juno, but only had 3.3 miles to drive. On the way back to Inspiration Point there were a few breaks in the cloud and we could make out Iron Mountain as well as now and again brief glimpses of Mt. Baldy between the clouds.
It's thru hiker season so already we saw two girls that were coming up to Inspiration Point, but looked like they had a car waiting for them and were heading back to Wrightwood. There were only a couple of cars in parking lot, one a solo female hiker, who we introduced ourselves and checked to see if she had any local trail knowledge. She seemed familiar with the area and was heading the same way as we intended to go. Apparently there is a loop she was doing so she was hiking round trip. Since we had two cars we were only going one way. We also inquired about Jackson Lake, which we learned was 2.5 miles off of the PCT and a long decent that we wouldn't want to hike back up so we would not be checking that out.
We started the hike a little up hill and beginning at 7,381 we were already feeling the elevation. The trail was easy to follow and as we hiked we had a few more breaks in the cloud and could see some of the surrounding mountains. When we got up to the top of the first ridge we could soon see north to the high desert. We even had a clearing in the clouds and could see down to Jackson Lake. The hike was mostly uneventful and soon we were already 2 miles in and almost halfway done. There was a fork in the trail and obvious which way to continue on the PCT, but only about 20 yards up it looked like there might be a vantage point to see back to the south side of the mountain so we hiked up and were offered great views once again of Mt. Baldy and Mt. Baden Powell.
While we thought most of the hike would be downhill it seemed like about half of the time we were going uphill. Finally making the last turn we could see there was a long steeper decent all the way back down to the Vincent Gap parking area. We could see where the road was blocked and two immediate areas just past the road block where obviously there were some issues with the mountain slope of Mt. Baden Powell giving way and rock slides over Angels Crest Highway. I called the Ranger station the following day and best I could gather is it's going to be closed for at least another year and a half. Ugh.
On the steep decent back to the parking area we passed thru a grove of walnut trees that somehow were saved from the fire. Most of the whole trail we hiked we giant trees all mostly burned from the "Bridge Fire" in September of 2024. There wasn't much snow this year and so conditions were already good early in the season to climb Mt. Baden Powell and was obvious because the lot had filled up since we parked a couple hours earlier. We drove back to our first car at Inspiration Point and there were 3 more thru hikers that had arrived so before heading home we talked with them. All 3 were from Michigan. They had giving themselves trail names "Cookie Monster", "Cheesecake" and "Shiner". Apparently Shiner slipped and fell and his hike pole imploded into his cheek so he had a black eye the past couple of weeks. They had just taken 2 zero days in Wrightwood and were going to do the 4.5 miles Peter and I had just finished as their hike for the day.
There was 4th thru hiker hiking by himself that crossed Angeles Crest Highway and asked if we could give him a ride back down to Wrightwood which of course we obliged. Again not much room in my car for a passenger, Juno, and a large pack, so we thru his pack in Peter's truck as well as Juno rode with Peter so I could talk to him for a few minutes and share some stories. He was from Salt Lake City and 59 years old. We shared common stories of both hiking Kings Peak as well as he shared that the Mission Creek section of the PCT was pretty much wiped out by hurricane Hilary 3 years ago.
All in all it was the perfect day, perfect hike, and so happy to get out of house for the day and escape to the mountains. One last stop on the way back home at the infamous McDonalds at Cajun Pass which once again was filled with thru hikers refueling and resting.
