Wrightwood to Agua Dulce

Hello from Hiker Heaven, a trail angel house in Agua Dulce -- about 45 minutes from LA. They don't call it Hiker Heaven for nothing ... This place greeted us with a bedroom, a warm shower, laundry, and tons of hiker friends. We've landed in paradise and plan to stay forever. Well, we would stay forever, but the hosts (The Sauffley's) institute a two-night maximum because they know people would linger indefinitely otherwise.




The yard at Hiker Heaven. Somehow we got here at the exact right time, and so Mrs. Sauffley gave us the one and only bedroom!



Resupply central!



The ladies got lucky last night - massages while we waited for dinner.

From Wrightwood, we just completed 85 more hot, desert miles. Before we left Wrightwood, we hit up the local bakery and did some serious damage in their day-old baked goods section. Justin and I each got maple donuts and we also got a massive cinnamon bun. We then rode up to the trailhead with Dora, a former PCTer who was back in California to get a PCT tattoo. Turns out Dora knows our friend Jay (trail name: "Stabby" - no idea how such a gentle friend got such a scary name) through the thru hiker community. Small world! It was early evening by the time we got to the trail head.

I had immediate regrets about the cinnamon bun. It was super heavy, so I was trying to eat it right away (carrying the weight in my stomach is somehow easier than on my back). But we started with a steep ascent up Mount Baden-Powell, which was leaving me breathless - and especially with a mouthful of dense cinnamon deliciousness. I finally conceded defeat and asked Justin to share it with me. Given my love of baked goods, that did not come easily.



The walk up from the road.

Our goal was to get up and over Mount Baden-Powell that night. However, it was getting cold and windy as we continued gaining elevation, which meant that we'd want to make it down decently far on the other side before camping for the night. While we were still on the ascent, we saw a beautiful site with a great view. We still had another hour of daylight/twilight left, and easily could have pressed the miles, but we reminded ourselves that we're forgoing a combined 12-months of salary for this experience. Sometimes, it should feel like a vacation dammit! So we dropped our packs and commenced taking sunset pictures and making miso soup. The next day we spoke to other hikers who camped just after the summit and they reported it had been a miserable night. We tried to keep our gloating to a minimum.



Sunset from our campsite.

The next morning, Mr. Cohan-Shapiro got up earlier than I had ever seen (early morning flights exempted). The alarm went off at 4:45 am!!! We scurried up the final miles to the summit and got there at something like sunrise. We ate our maple donuts as a celebration and then started the descent because BRRRR it was windy and freezing up there.



Sunrise wicked early the next day



Some snow on the way up. Training for the Sierra??!









Celebratory donuts at the summit.



Above the clouds.

The next two days were kind of a blur of beautiful but steep high-country desert. To our LA friends: we highly recommend checking out Highway 2 through the Angeles National Forest. It was really beautiful. One day, there was another mini trail closure - the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog is endangered and the Forest Service doesn't want hikers tromping all over their habitat in a brief stretch of trail. We gladly walked on a road for a few miles to give these little guys a break.



Road walkin'



Cool tree. It's fun the be at high elevations in the desert - still no water, but it's cooler and there are trees!



Dope wildflowers

During these days, we passed the time discussing corporate inversions, tax loopholes, and exactly what a hedge fund does. Justin challenged me to define what "shorting a stock" means (something I certainly learned in the first year of business school). I got the first half right - it's what you do when you think a stock is overvalued. The second half of my definition, however, involved time travel, at which point Justin stopped offering partial credit and just started laughing. I welcome you all to email me your best definition, because even after reading Investopedia right now, I still find a pithy definition a bit out of reach.

As a side note, I'd like to call out the fact that we spent two DAYS talking about corporate inversions and tax loopholes as illustrative of exactly how much time we have out here.



Another great tentsite.



Foot travel welcome. Which is fortunate because that's our only method.



Cool pinecone #1


Cool pinecone #2


Thanks for the fancy crackers, Mom!

The next few days were tougher. In the desert, you have to be constantly aware: aware of snakes (and of the infinite lizards, birds, insects, and other things rustling and rattling in the bushes that might be snakes), aware of prickly cacti jabbing out into the trail, aware of where your next water source is and how you're tracking your water consumption toward it. At mile 400, we added a new variable to the equation: the dreaded POODLE DOG BUSH. Yes, this adorable sounding plant is actually the worst. It is native to Southern California, and grows in areas that have been damaged by fires. From what we understand, it's like poison oak times 1000. Many people who come into contact with it end up at the hospital. For 40 miles, it was everywhere - in huge bushes on the sides of the trail, in sneaky baby plants right on the trail, in dead/decaying bushes rotting in piles. The person who walks first on the trail has to take on the major cognitive load of keeping their eyes open for PDB, calling it out to the second person (whose view is obstructed), as well as watch for all the normal variables (which we really boil down to one critical thing: rattlesnakes). We barely talked for long stretches, we were so focused. It was honestly exhausting, and a huge relief to reach mile 441 and exit the burn area. We know there are a few more PDB stretches ahead, but hopefully the worst is behind us.



Poodle dog bushes.



Poodle dog growing in the middle of a seemingly landscaped plot of land at a forest service fire station.



The desert trio: poodle dog on the left, hot sun beaming down in me in the middle, and a snake above my shadow. Constant vigilance.

While poodle dog is the worst, eating on the trail is the best!! Before we left, my girlfriends all gave me spices to keep trail life exciting. We've used Alicia's furikake to dramatically spice up ramen and Emily CP's sriracha packets to add some kick to, well, everything. We've got more coming in the boxes ahead and can't wait. Especially eager to get Lindsay's Cajun seasoning and see what it does to Mac and cheese. We are also having a hilarious time eating delicious foods of ... Argentina. Over the holidays, we did a backpacking trip in Patagonia and fell in love with some of the backpacking food we bought there. So we obviously brought tons home. We're in the Mojave desert, making limeade with Argentine drink powder, eating "letras" alphabet soup, and keep a good stock of "caramelos" candies in our pockets every day. We also love having our dehydrated veggies. The other night, we camped with a friend. Coincidentally, we were both having instant mashed potatoes for dinner. Our friend just added water to the packet and ate. Ours, well, ours had brussel sprouts, red and yellow peppers, lentils, jalapeño, parmesan, cheddar, red pepper flakes, and smoked salt. Eating is the best part of every day.

Another thing we do so much more of out here is read. At home, while we both read before bed each night, it can take weeks to get through a book. Here, we typically read during all of lunch and again once the sun goes down, so we get through books much faster. I've read a trio of books about death - Being Mortal, When Breath Becomes Air, and The Short, Tragic Life of Robert Peace. I highly recommend all three, though perhaps not in such close proximity. It's been a little dark. I think the new Jonathan Franzen book, Purity, is next for me. Justin is working on Robert Peace right now, which is fun because we can talk about it. I maintain Oswaldo is the hero of the book, Justin is still trying to decide.



Justin looking for a campsite.



Justin desperately seeking a signal so he could send an email for one of our wedding vendors.






Vasquez Rocks as we approached Agua Dulce.

The other thing (besides reading and eating) that we're doing a ton of is talking about the snow in the Sierra. In just 250 miles, we'll be done with the desert and starting the most technically challenging part of the hike. We've had an uncharacteristically cold spring with a few late season storms, so it's not going to be a walk in the park (ohhhh get it? It's a pun! Because traversing the Sierra is technically a walk in Sequoia/Kings Canyon/Yosemite national parks!!). Folks ahead of us seem to be in three camps:

A. Forge ahead with ice axes, crampons, and snow skills.
B. Get off trail for a while to wait for the snow to melt a bit
C. Skip ahead (some all the way to Oregon!) to keep hiking, with the intent of doing the Sierra later in the summer.

Our friend Timmy C., alias Breakfast Sandwich, is joining us for the first ~100 miles of the Sierra. We're hoping in the next few weeks the snow level has decreased enough that we can forge ahead with crampons only. But we're watching it carefully and seemingly talking of nothing else with other hikers.

And that brings us to Hiker Heaven. There's a scale here that reports we've lost 10-15 lbs each. Hopefully our wedding clothes still fit! I'm working hard to combat that right now by eating 1200 calories of cinnamon rolls from my sleeping bag while writing this.

This is where we started our 2014 hike, so the next 850 miles will be somewhat familiar. We can't wait to start them and see what we recognize, what we don't, and how our perspective has changed. For one thing, I could probably define "shorting a stock" in 2014. The next stretch includes the infamous Mojave floor, the LA aqueduct, the even more venomous Mojave Green rattlesnake, and very limited water. Here we go!!!!!