5/31 Cold Windy Night

We climbed into the San Gabriel mountains yesterday. The elevation gain was 5000 feet over 15 miles. The temperature was balmy at the bottom and frigid at the top.

A ton of hikers camped at the top. It was the only water source in the entire stretch.  Water sources tend to clump hikers into groups. There were hikers we hasn't seen for a week, others we had never met before. The campfire is obligatory whenever a bunch of folks are camping in the same place. Sometime after dark Gnar wandered in. He had left the motel room several hours after us.

As the night grew darker the wind picked up and the fire grew higher. Outside of the fire ring the temperature was extremely cold.

At some point in the night, I realized that I wasn't sleeping due to the wind buffeting our tent in the most outrageous fashion. I became convinced that cowboy camping without a tent was he sleep solution.

I woke a, reluctant Zm and we stumbled out into the intense wind. After some comical fumbling we were able to reconfigure into cowboy mode. Now it was our sleeping bags that were being buffeted. It was not a good night of sleep.

This morning was a quick 4 mile walk for the hitch to Wrightwood. It was all business: stuffing our faces, getting mail, and buying food for the next 100 miles. I was able to score a ride back to the trail around six. A mile down the trail led us to our friends.

Tonight a legend was born. As we got to camp one of our friends was on the way back to the trailhead. He was convinced that he could hitch back to Wrightwood and bring back some pizza. I was skeptical as the highway was not busy at all. However, just before dark he returned with two large pizzas and a steak. We gorged ourselves on pizza while Gnar cooked the steak on a stick above the fire. The fellow that went out on the pizza run got his trail name that night. We called him 'Legend' due to his legendary pizza obtaining abilities.