Fun With Chris and Jane

The Arredondos and Ammeraals were with us for the balance of Thanksgiving weekend in Wrightwood, and Sunday’s plan called for a visit with the kids to Grassy Hollow and a hike of undetermined length along the PCT. Once we got to the first open views west from the trail to Mt. Baden-Powell, Chris suggested we continue walking west up Blue Ridge to Jackson Flat campground – when here back in March, we had wandered through the empty campground and noticed…

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After yesterday’s hike over Throop Peak to Mt. Hawkins and back, we were looking Sunday for something a little lower impact on our sore muscles – Cynthia hadn’t yet been to the Grassy Hollow visitor center, so we dropped into the facility at about 10am before heading west on the PCT. We’ve hiked this section of the trail what seems like dozens of times now, and we decided to simply walk westward for about two miles before turning around, getting…

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Having been to Throop Peak twice before, we’re quite familiar with the trail ascending the mountain’s north ridge from Dawson Saddle. Cynthia was with us for the weekend in Wrightwood, and we figured the moderate climb would be just the ticket to get her four miles closer to sixty while allowing Jane to gather some of the diminutive lodgepole pine cones she likes so much. So, after a leisurely morning, we arrived at the trailhead around 11am and headed up,…

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While Chelsea stayed at the cabin for some quiet time, we took the boys on another hike, this time up the Blue Ridge trail near Big Pines and the Mountain High ski resorts. From our two previous visits here, we recalled a trailside bench halfway up the route, a mile from both the trailhead and the top of the trail at Blue Ridge campground – after the nearly-two-mile hike the day before, we figured the little guys could make it…

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One of the long-standing Wrightwood traditions is having garage sales on Memorial Day weekend, such that people come from all over to shop for treasures at several hundred simultaneous yard sales. While Jane and Chelsea ventured out with the crowds, Chris took all three boys on a hike. The plan was to start at Grassy Hollow and head east up the PCT – unsure of how far we’d get, we packed the boys’ new hydration backpacks with a liter of…

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We had all three boys with us in Wrightwood for a couple of days before Easter, and we had promised to take them on a hike. One destination that’s popular with locals (although not well-publicized officially, which is probably a good thing) is a small historic cabin on the east flank of Mt. Baden-Powell. Built in the 1880’s by Charles Thomas Vincent, for whom Vincent Gap is named, the structure lies about a half mile southeast of his namesake trailhead and…

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Hello, world! We’re still here, just had to take six months off hiking to let Jane’s feet heal from a bad case of plantar fasciitis. Now ready to get back in the saddle, we were joined in Wrightwood for the weekend by Jane’s cousins, Jean and Janet. We had wanted to hike up Mt. Baden-Powell, but a heavy snow year means crampons and ice axes are still required atop the mountain – we chose an easier hike, wanting to start…

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In Wrightwood for the first time since both our Yosemite trip and the concurrent Blue Cut fire that nearly reached the community, we were anxious to stretch our muscles that hadn’t seen much activity once we returned to our daily grind. We had discussed hiking the 7+-mile Waterman Mountain trail again but decided to visit Throop Peak instead, since it lies about 20 minutes closer to Wrightwood and we’d get back before the day got away. We first hiked Throop Peak…

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Family commitments and projects at home have conspired to keep us off the trails since our backpack trip in Sequoia, but we finally got a long weekend in Wrightwood with not many plans in it. Jane’s mom, Barbara, joined us for the weekend, and we wanted to do a short walk that would introduce her to the pretty forest. The segment of the PCT west of the Grassy Hollow visitor center is so nice, having walked here many times both…

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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…

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