Day 23: McDonalds

Date: Thurs 5/10

PCT Start Mile: 328.1

PCT End Mile: 347.2

PCT Mileage for Day: 19.1

Off-Trail Hike Mileage: .8

Total Mileage for Day: 19.9

Total PCT Mileage: 347.2

Total Overall Mileage: 363.49

The Highlights:breezy hiking, McDonalds, and a rattlesnake bathroom break

We woke early, Golden Arches on the brain. It’s well documented that there is a McDonalds only .4 miles off the PCT at Cajon Pass (mile 341.9) and this had been on everyone’s brain since leaving Big Bear.

Our first day hiking out of Big Bear Lake, we met a few other hikers at a water break. One of them had hiked the trail last year and, as we bantered about the upcoming days, he mentioned that the section surrounding the McDonalds was very hot and it was good to arrive at the McDs by midday to spend the hot afternoon hours out of the heat before hiking on. Our wheels were turning. That night, Shawn did the math. We’d basically need to do two very long 24-ish mile days to get into Cajon Pass by midday on the third day.

And so, we spent the last two days putting this plan into action, hiking big mile days, beating up our bodies (mostly feet for me), and planning three days of our lives around a singular McDonalds visit. I can pretty confidently say that no past or future McDonalds visits will ever be given this much thought. And – we weren’t even the only ones thinking and planning this way. All around us we were meeting other hikers that were also planning their daily mileage around their McDonalds visit. Most also putting in big miles to make the timing work out.

And so, after two 24-mile days, today was the day! But first, we still had 14 more miles to hike to get there. We decided to get up a little earlier than usual to try and beat the heat, particularly since the day would begin with a long climb. We rolled out of camp just after 6am.

The morning miles began with a long four-mile uphill, followed by downhill and undulating mountains and hills. Fortunately the day was quite breezy, so we didn’t have to deal with much heat. All day yesterday we had fantasized about air conditioning, shade, and icy cold beverages. Today these desires seemed a little less urgent, but we were motivated by them nonetheless.

The miles as we approached the McDonalds seemed to get longer and longer, as per usual. Uphill. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger. Downhill. Fries, fries, fries... Up-down-up. Ice cold sodas and ice cream! We were so close!

The last mile of trail followed along a dry creek bed, with trees growing throughout, it looked as though it’d been dry for some time. Parched. Like my mouth. Ice-cold iced tea…

Finally, we reached the intersection of the trail with the frontage road to the McDonalds. There is an actual sign here, on the trail, telling you that McDonalds is .4 miles down the road. Obviously, hiker priorities in mind.

We arrived at the Golden Arches at 11:37am, and proceeded to spend almost the next 4 hours there. This was pretty common for the hikers that rolled in. Everyone taking their time with each phase of their meal, getting another drink, maybe another meal, some ice cream, maybe another meal…

Shawn started his smorgasbord with an egg McMuffin, hash browns, double cheeseburger, French fries, and coke. This was something like 1600 calories. I opted for the nuggets… 20 of them… and a large fry. And an iced tea – unsweet, so no calories there, but better for hydrating 🙂 While Shawn plowed through his meals without flinching, I couldn’t finish mine. I was actually okay with this. Hiker hunger has not set in. It wasn’t long before Shawn had a McFlurry at the table. I couldn’t. Just shameful.

And so, we spent the afternoon at the McDs, sipping drink refills and talking to all the other hikers that came through. Many of the guys we’d leapfrogged with all day yesterday were so wrecked by their big mile days to get to McDonalds that, after stuffing themselves, they decided to get hotel rooms at the Best Western down the road.

Around 3:30pm, Shawn and I headed back to the trail, packs full-up with water, as the next 28-mile stretch to Wrightwood was likely to be dry. While there were some reports of water caches, most of them were unreliable, at least not something we could plan on. We’d need to ration our 6L over the next day and a half, plus this evening.

The good news was we didn’t need to make big miles today. We’d already hiked 14 this morning and it really didn’t matter how far we hiked tonight before stopping. That said, we’d at least have to make it to somewhere we could camp.

Heading out of Cajon Pass, we crossed under I-15 and the rail line that we’d watched trains clack by on all day. And then over another railway and on into the mountains until we could see the cars whizzing by on I-15 in the distance, but no longer hear the hum of the road.

The afternoon winds were strong and some gusts felt like they would nearly blow us off the mountain. The silver lining: the cooling winds helped us to conserve water.

Today was also our first sighting – and smelling – of Poodle Dog Bush, which can cause severe skin irritation when touched. People say you can often smell it before you can see it, which is true, but it smells a lot like weed, so you can’t really be sure if you’ll round the corner and see a bunch of Poodle Dog Bush or a bunch of hikers smokin’ a bowl, another common sight along the trail. At any rate, you have to be careful not to touch the plant, lest you are looking for some misery.

We hiked about 5 1/2 miles before stopping to camp at Swarthout Canyon, a low area with some protection from the wind, which died out completely by nightfall anyway. Naturally, after carrying 6 liters of water out of Cajon Pass, there was also a fully stocked water cache here. Better safe than sorry, I guess. We perused the hiker log to see when other hikers we knew passed through.

After arriving and chatting with some other hikers for awhile, Shawn eventually wandered off to find a place to take care of business. He almost had a City Slickers situation on his hands when, only a foot in front of him, under a bush, a coiled rattlesnake struck up its rattle. He about fell over jumping back. The rattle definitely does its job, it’s very alarming. I could even here it from 20 yards away over by the tent. Obviously, he searched out another place for his business. Note to self: no nighttime bathroom trips.

We set up our tent between two large bushes (sans rattlesnakes) and cooked our dinners. Shawn a lot less hungry than me after his McDonalds feasting.