I am a bit late with catching up … but – even though I have left the States for now – I would like to share our trip out west. After we drove from Las Vegas through Death Valley National Park, we stayed in Ridgecrest for one night. Ridgecrest was one of the trail towns I stayed at when I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017. It was great to come back here – this time together with my partner, who also hiked the trail, but didn’t stay in that town. I very vividly remember that situation when I checked into the motel in 2017: I asked for a city map as I wanted to explore the place a bit on my day off hiking. The person at the front desk looked at me, very startled, and asked, what I would need a city map for. I said, I wanted to walk around and explore the place a bit. Again, very astonished looks. And then: „You don’t need a map. There is nothing of interest here. There is just a Walmart and that motel. Thats it.“ Without a map I left the lobby. Well, the person is kinda right, but it is a neat (trail) town with all what you need while hiking.
Anyway, we eventually made our way to Wrightwood, where we were invited to Jess’ and Chad’s wedding.
Wrightwood! I cannot count the times I already stayed there. It is a special little town where a couple of awesome friends are living and I was about to meet them all again. I was excited! But also because of we got to hike little parts of the PCT again. It is always a specific feeling to come back to the Pacific Crest Trail and especially the stretch close to Wrightwood. It feels very familiar, and right and warm and good. Close to town is the actually very inspiring „Inspiration Point“. From there you can see – if there is not too much smog and haze – all the way to the Pacific Ocean and if you turn around on your heels, the desert floor of the Mojave. Even when not on trail, the trail is everywhere. We met our first hikers in the McDonalds at Cajon Pass, the next one we saw in town, then the next group at Inspiration Point. Most of them already had that typical trail-glow in their eyes. It’s been great to hear their stories and we exchanged some of ours, too. Then, finally, we got to hike a bit: along the PCT, scrambled up to Pine Mountain, hiked a loop around Wrightwood. We refreshed old memories and made new ones.
And overall – of course – we attended a great wedding, caught up and made new plans. It just felt very right to come back to a place so important to me before leaving the US for some time.
