Boy Scouts and Bugs

McDonalds was a blur of French fries, burgers, and smelly hikers counting calories. I made it to about 1500 but there were others who were trying to push 7000. Bad idea. We beat most of the heat there that day then spent the rest of the day light hiding under an overpass. It was HOT. We hit the trail again around 5 even though it was still about 90 degrees. We hiked into the night and it seemed as the night got darker, the trail got steeper. In the distance we saw the headlamps of other  up the trail. It was going to be a looong night. Made even more discouraging when we checked the map and read the words "virtually no camping." We hiked late into the night and I was moving at a snails pace. We finally found a road and set up camp on the side of it. Too tired to make dinner, I shoved some chips in my mouth and passed out. The next morning we woke up on a time schedule,  we needed to make it 17 miles into Wrightwood by mid afternoon to get our packages from the post office. Luckily when we hit the deserted highway to hitch in, two really nice gentlemen were just finishing up a nice day hike. They weren't heading in the same direction but they gave us a ride anyway. We got our bounce boxes filled with goodies and notes

And set up outside the local bar to sort through everything. As we waited our friends Todd and Cara joined us and said they were staying overnight and were wondering if we wanted to share a cabin at the local inn. Our plan had been to hit the trail later that night but laundry and a shower were too tempting, we chose to stay. While the laundry was going we were forced to wear makeshift outfits out of what we had. 

This was mine(before shower). We had a blast with them and got a good fill of pizza and beer. We took a long morning getting out of town, enjoying our coffee and finishing up all the last minute tasks. We hitched back up to the trailhead with our new hiking buddies (Todd and Cara). The first few miles were really nice and easy. Until we hit mt. Baden Powell. A 4000 ft elevation gain in 4 miles to get us up to 9000 ft. I was worried because of the quick elevation gain and it would be the highest I had been since the altitude sickness.  We took it slow but made it to the peak! 

The trail down wasn't as enjoyable. It was a steep downhill with many downed trees we had to climb over. We made it to a campsite in the dark and the first thing that hit us was the smell. I asked who was cooking rotten fish while Cara asked who was burning trash. Turns out it was the pit toilets that hadn't been cleaned out in ages. We were also welcomed by 50 other headlamps of boy scout troops we were surrounded by. As I'm sure you could guess, the morning was as enjoyable as the previous evening had been. Boys running everywhere, shouting, breaking things, causing general disarray around the campground. We headed out and took a lot of breaks. We had to take a detour around an endangered species area and ended up road walking for three miles on the asphalt. It was killer on the joints. We made it to a much less crowded boy scout camp and set up for the night. Cara and Todd made us popcorn and we got in bed, but not before I threw a snickers in my mouth. As I lay there watching the stars, I felt a bit of snickers left on upper lip. I tried to pull it into my mouth with my tongue but when that didn't work I used my hand to pull off the rogue piece of chocolate... It was not chocolate. It was a large beetle I had been poking with my tongue for about five minutes. I slept uneasy that night. Mile 400.9.