Campsite at mile 358 to highway 2 (mile 369 + hitch into Wrightwood)
It’s only ten miles to Wrightwood, ten rolling hilltop miles on a ridge between two deserts. During the last miles of our approach to Wrightwood we take an unofficial alternate along a forest service road, adding half a mile but providing better views into the valley where I lived for close to eight years. It feels infinitely far away, and yet so close.
I can see downtown Los Angeles in the distance, just below the familiar ridge of Mount Wilson. A small paper cut out of a city rising above the clouds and smog that fill the valley. Further out into the flat white I can see Palos Verdes and Catalina island. I’m suddenly struck by an odd melancholy, not in the way of missing a place, but in the sense of feeling removed from an entire population.
Well not an entire population, because Mac is coming to visit today! Yay Mac! Yay friend who drives all the way from Los Angeles to come and see me, listen to confusing inside jokes from strange dirty hikers, and drink beer. Thank you for coming to visit Mac, it was so nice to talk about something other than the trail for a while, to be reminded that a vibrant world exists beyond the dirt strip that is my current home.
Hanging out with only hikers is filled with the sort of rapid bonding that comes from intense shared experiences. However, the breadth of conversation thus far has largely centered around hiking. It’s nice to be able to talk about something else. Jobs, dogs, and adventures beyond my own. A whole world!
Mac departs this evening, and tomorrow we’ll hike out of town. For the next few days we’ll parallel the Los Angeles and then begin our turn north, away from the desert, away from the city, moving further and further from a place that I never loved, but might just find a way to miss.