Ok, so this hike didn’t turn out to be quite as epic as we had planned, but it was still pretty epic. With a long holiday weekend in Wrightwood on tap, we had been looking at walking the PCT between Vincent Gap and Islip Saddle, roughly twelve trail miles total between the two points. The biggest hurdle by far in this stretch of the PCT is Mt. Baden-Powell, the summit of which lies 2,800′ above Vincent Gap, but, having been up that way twice before, we figured we could just coast down the Angeles Crest from there – apart from a short climb out of the saddle between Mt. Burnham and Throop Peak, the trail loses elevation nearly the entire distance west from Baden-Powell. We had discussed how fun it would be to tag the five summits along the way, starting of course with Baden-Powell followed by Mt. Burnham, Throop Peak, Mt. Hawkins, and Mt. Islip – the first four are close enough by the PCT, but the last would add about 1-1/2 miles to the total distance and more than 600′ of gain, so we considered Islip to be an optional want but not a need. Our time goal was open, but we hoped to net about a 1.5 mph overall pace. That left the logistical challenge of transportation between the start and end points for the hike – with the Arredondos and Ammeraals spending the weekend  with us, we figured we could get a ride back to Vincent Gap after leaving our car at Islip, or someone could shuttle our car out to Islip while we were on the trail (we ended up choosing the latter). So, as the thru-hiker season is nearly over for Wrightwood, we made our own little thru-hike this cool Saturday morning with partly cloudy skies – sort of like swimming with the dolphins for us, and perhaps we felt a little like real trekkers as we arrived at the crowded Vincent Gap parking lot. As we geared up and headed out, we were struck by the number of trail runners – all the way up the mountain, and even later on the less-traveled Angeles Crest traverse, we were passed by dozens of runners. We understand many were training for the AC100, a 100-mile endurance race from Wrightwood to Altadena in August – many were quite impressive in their stamina, none more so than an older guy who, wearing nothing but shoes and shorts, passed us coming down, then again going up, then again coming down before we were 3/4 up the mountain. Under full packs again for this trip, we were making good time up until the upper third of the mountain, where Chris began to feel very tired – maybe the elevation, maybe the minimal breakfast, but he slowed the pace considerably after that. We staggered (ok, it was just Chris who staggered) up the to top to find the summit full of people – Boy Scouts, runners, a handful of both day- and thru-hikers, it was a motley crew. We stayed long enough to sign the register and snap a few photos, having earlier decided to take a lunch break on Mt. Burnham. We had left Vincent Gap just before 9am, and we were now about a half hour behind schedule at 12 noon and perhaps looking at a 6pm finish – we walked cross-country west off the summit, picking up the PCT again in a few minutes. Chris felt better going downhill but bonked again as soon as we started climbing up the short use trail to Burnham – the summit here is not much more than 100′ above the trail, but it was still a struggle that required a couple of breaks. Unlike our first visit here two years ago, we could not find a register, but the sun came out and it was quite pleasant eating in the sunshine and a cool breeze. We soon dropped back east to the PCT, turned west again, and continued into the saddle descending through what we consider to be the prettiest lodgepole forest in the area – a short while later found us negotiating the 400′ ascent of Throop Peak’s east shoulder. The bottom of the saddle is at about 8,500′, and the high elevation got to Chris once again – by the time we reached the junction with the Dawson Saddle trail and the turnoff to Throop Peak, we had decided that doing all five peaks was too lofty a goal for today (pun intended), and we continued south and west around Throop instead of up and over it. The walking here is very easy along a nearly-level track. As we emerged onto the open ridgeline north of Mt. Hawkins, we passed a campsite filled with the tents of a Scout troop who had just passed us going east – a beautiful spot, indeed, with views across the entire range. Since Mt. Hawkins is only about 75′ higher than and about 200 yards south of the PCT, we digressed up the use trail to its summit, again rewarded with wonderful views but no register. At this point, it was after 3pm and we still had 4-5 miles left – the clouds had never quite consolidated into anything threatening so far, but a dark cell had now started to form above Throop Peak, and we decided to waste no more time. Regaining the PCT, we dropped down through the area burned by the 2002 Curve Fire, eventually pulling into Windy Gap some 1,250′ below. Of the entire hike today, this was the only section we had not hiked before – apart from the general lack of shade, this segment was really nice, the grade not too steep with windows south over the Crystal Lake area. After Windy Gap, we passed a small knot of hikers refilling their water supplies at Little Jimmy Spring – which we could hear running strongly – and we found a crowded Little Jimmy campground not much further west. The trail here is very gentle as well, contouring around the north slopes of Mt. Islip, and we passed several groups heading east to the campground – no idea if they were able to find space there. We knew that the trail crossed a USFS road a mile east of Islip Saddle, and it was just after this point that Zane, a young thru-hiker whom we had met near Baden-Powell’s summit, caught up with us – we chatted more with him as we attempted to keep up with his brisk pace, flying westward down the trail. Although Chris had regained some semblance of health once past Mt. Hawkins, he got left in the dust as Zane and Jane motored on. The buckthorn meadow above Islip Saddle was particularly beautiful in the late afternoon light and cloud shadows, and Chris found Jane waiting for him on the switchbacks leading down to the parking area. Pedro and Cody had successfully shuttled the van here an hour earlier, so that part of the plan worked great. With the three summit diversions, the total distance ended up at 12.75 miles, our longest ever by more than a mile, and we had managed to even meet our speed goal of 1.5 mph. Slightly more than 8-1/2 hours on the trail left us a little footsore, but it was great to do this under full packs – plus, we now have a new goal to come back stronger and do this hike again with all the peaks included.