Big Bear City

Hi. I'm typing this on the oldest computer i have ever seen. We are at the Nature's Inn in Big Bear City, Ca. We have a hot tub in our room. There is now a "hiker ring" around the hot tub. The trip here was tough, and also amazing...

Left Idyllwild, camped at top of mountain. Next day, did a 20 mile day down to I-10 and slept there out of the crazy wind - train going over us every half hour.. slept thru most of that. But the awesome part right before that was when Jack - the owner of a suped up dune buggy style 1970 volkswagon bug offered me a ride to get beer for 11 dollars. He normally charges 18 for a "baha ride" but made an exception for us hiker trash bridge sleepers.. we went 65 miles an hour down crazy dirt roads, racing the train to the intersection, and won... i think i left fingernail marks in the steel frame around the window i was holding onto..

then the wind farm day.. the office let you come into the break room, cool off, and sold us microwave sandwiches and klondike bars for 1 dollar each!

we hiked on to Whitewater River, where a guy named Jackrabbit - a thru hiker from last year - had hiked in a 12 pack of beer. We sat in the river with all of our clothes on - and got drunk with him on the sandy beach. He left, and we had the beach all to ourselves in the moonlight with the 6 foot wide river rushing by our tent.. romantic evening indeed.. rawrrrrr!!

Then things went straight to sucktown the next day. We had to follow a washed out path way up this canyon stream. the trail would disappear, and we'd have to find it again by following footsteps and clues... we argued, we pushed on...

The next day we headed to higher ground, got up to 8600 feet, cooler, and had a mostly pleasant day. Stayed in the Coon Camp Shelter with "the aussies," "Slow and Steady," or "Bob and Barbara." This was the first of just a handful of shelters on this entire trail. We hung the bear bag for the first time, which was a scene in itself in the cold dusk..

The next day was our last full hiking day before the highway to big bear.. we made it 15 miles to a nice spot 4.5 miles from highway 18. Woke up at 5:30, made tea, and a big black cloud was coming! Snow started falling, and did not stop. We hiked fast to the road, covered in snow, and a guy named Marco picked us up and took us straight to the local diner, Thelma's. We watched out the window, across our pancakes and omelettes, as Big Bear City got a 5 inch dusting of snow. It's the end of May!! Freaking Snowing in SoCal!!

Well the rest of the Big Bear City story is all hot tubs, city bus rides, blister popping (i finally got one at mile 250), and re-supply for the next stretch... to Wrightwood. On this stretch is a natural hot spring, a McDonalds (big event for hikers) and a full moon! Maybe some night hiking!

Gonna go eat some honey nut cheerios with powdered milk that i found in a hiker box right now. Unga Bunga over and out...