I wake up to clear blue sky. The clouds settled over Cajon during the night.  

  

I continue the long climb up. I don’t see another hiker all morning. The trail contours the ridge revealing another burn section.  

 I have to watchout for the dreaded poodle dog bush through here. It’s a spikey looking plant that smells like skunk and sour beer. If touched it will cause severe blistering. Symptoms usually show up days later. I’ve heard people can have such bad reactions to it that it’s a real hike ender.

  I find some almost immediately.

  
Yuck.

Luckily that’s one of the only green ones I find. Most of the ones next to the trail are dead, wilted and brown. I remember TaterTot saying someone went through and sprayed them with weed killer. Thankyou you wonderful person! 

You can see the dead ones lining the trail. All that’s left are their tall dry stalks. 

I do my best to avoid the dead ones too. You never know. 

The trail dips down to the other side of the ridge. It feels like mountain country. I love it.

  The trail leaves the burn section and continues up through fresh pine trees.

 I find Ultra Heavy taking a break in some shade. His pack is a sky scraper of a pack. I wonder what he has in there. 

He tells me about his rock grading system. If he can sit on it without taking off his pack and it slopes slightly back, it’s a 10 out of 10 rock. The rock he’s sitting on now? It’s an 8. He always stops for a 10 out of 10 rock. This is brilliant! I’m going to have to adopt his grading system. I wish Ultra Heavy a good hike and push on to the next water source.

I pass the Acorn trail down to Wrightwood and find a teeny tiny hand made sign for the water. 

   
I hike down and meet a hiker named Moutain Dew filling up a water bottle. He got his trail name because he cowboy camps (without a tent) and wakes up covered in mountain dew drops. 
The trail leads me through an exposed section of the ridge. The view is beautiful. 

  

 
I pass through some more forest and then find a huge pit lined with black tarp to collect water.   

   
What is that??? 

I then see some ski lifts in the trees. 

 That pit has to be for making snow!
The trail cuts across one of the grassy slopes and around the ski area. There’s not much room for switchbacks so it drops strait down for a spell. It’s really hard on the knees. I see a color coded ski sign.   Yep this seemed like a Blue run. 

Wishing it was snowy and I had skiis.  

I pass Inspiration Point where most hikers hitch a ride into Wrightwood. I’m glad I’m not going into town. I’ve only seen one car drive by. 

Another hiker named Mitch passes me. We’re both headed to the next water at Grassy Hollow Visitor Center.  

I find him resting at one of the picknick tables. The sun feels so nice. We hangout and eat Fritos. The ground is soft and flat. We decide it would be nice to camp by the water for the night.

It’s only 4 pm! I rest and paint Mount BadenPowel, tomorrow’s big climb.  

 The three French Canadian hikers join us, Mike, Alex and Alex. We set up under the big trees and watch the sun set. I’m going to try cowboy camping again, hopefully no clouds rain on me this time! 

   
   
Camped at mile 370.34 of the PCT.

Miles hiked today: 16.4