PCT Day 27 & 28 – Zero in Wrightwood to PCT mile 383.9

May 1 & 2, 2026

Total PCT miles: 14.6

Non PCT miles: 0.8

Total: 15.4 miles / 24.78 km

Total elevation gain: 4419 ft

Total elevation loss: 4213 ft

Steps: 38501

May 1st – Zero Day in Wrightwood.

You would think that with a nice comfortable bed for the first time in a week and a nice hot shower one would sleep like the dead. But I did not. Apparently it’s not unusual for thru-hikers to sleep poorly in their first night in town. Today was town chore day in Wrightwood but first a giant breakfast at the Grizzly Cafe. Wrightwood is an extreamly hiker friendly town. Several shops offer discounts to PCT hikers and the Wrightwood Market even gives PCT hikers a free hot dog (it was delicious). The hardware store has a lot of items a hiker may need and normally gives free pins to hikers but they didn’t have any.

I got a new tyvek ground sheet to protect my tent and air mattress and 4 key ring holders to better secure the inner and outer of my tent. I’m hoping this makes it easier to set up and put away. I hit the grocery store and Market to do my resupply for the next 5 days. The only single complaint I have about the town is that the grocery store is excessively expensive. I should have done as much of my resupply as possible from the market which is basically a gas station.

I returned to our chalet and did remaining chores – laundry, gear maintenance Etc and caught up with people back home.

Dinner was an absolute feast of home made pizza with crust cooked from scratch by Sage. The pizzas just kept coming and they were absolutely delicious. Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub before going to bed well past Hiker Midnight (2100 hrs).

May 2, 2025

We were up at 0700 to pack all our bags and get ready for the day. A last home cooked town meal of bacon, eggs, toast and avocado really hit the spot and would provide the fuel we needed to summit Mt Baden Powell. The owner of the property stopped by. She is known as Pajama Mama to hikers because of the onesies she provides so hikers can do their laundry. She coordinates a lot of accommodations for many hikers at various properties she owns at a very reasonable price.

It was time to leave but I really wish I could have stayed another day and just relaxed. But the miles sadly wont hike themselves. We were dropped of at the trail head by Sierra and were on the trail at 10:30. Huge thank you goes out to Sierra a Gwen for all they did for us over the last two day!

The first few miles were easy but then came Baden Powell. This is one of the last bigger obstacles before the Sierra. The challenge is made even larger by the fact that I have a full resupply making my bag extra heavy. There were a lot of day hikers going down as I hiked up. A few stoped to chat and I was happy to take the breaks to catch my breath.

As I ascended the views got more and more impressive. To the north nothing but flat desert. To the south hills and mountains. There were a few “sketchy” spots due to recent snowfall but nothing too tricky. I reached the summit around 1500 with the crew and we took a short break. There were still 6 miles and significant elevation to go and daylight was not on our side.

These miles were long and tiring and mostly up around 8000 plus feet. There were a few more snow patches that required careful navigation or if you were Sage some trail blazing. We got to little jimmy creek around 1830 filtered water and arrived at camp shortly after.

We are at Little Jimmy Campground that has picnic tables, pit toilets and bear boxes. It’s a large area with more PCT hikers than I’ve seen together my entire trip. Maybe the trail isn’t actually a complete ghost town.

We set up our camp and had a beautiful view while enjoying our well deserved dinner. The weather is expected to get much colder over the next few days. So hopefully we can get lower in elevation.