Day 34: Walkin’ Far

Hit the trail a little later this morning so I could cast on the 2nd pair of socks, starting around 8:45. We started with some climbing but it flattened out around the 3 mile mark.

The mountains over the lake. I think Big Bear is somewhere in this picture?

The rest of the day ended up fairly unremarkable, gradual ups and downs as I traversed along the North side of Big Bear Lake. I experimented with a faster pace this day and discovered that I was capable of maintaining it! It ended up being a 17 mile day which was probably a bit too far but the final 11 miles was completely dry and I wanted to get to Little Bear Spring Trail Camp near the next source. The final mile was a bit rough, my body tiring out, but I managed to get there.

I can’t seem to stop taking lizard pictures but in my defense they refuse to stop posing for them.

The campground ended up pretty uninspiring though, a few vaguely flat sites and only one other hiker camping there. While going over to the creek for water however I found a second large flat spot with approximately 10 hikers camping so I relocated and joined the crowd. It was largely a single large trail family, some of whom were actual family members. I watched a hiker called Queen ceremoniously anoint one of their group with his new trail name Rooster, dubbing him on the shoulders with her trowel. I also met up with Neurobomber again, the hiker who had given me the Indiana Jones trail name I was still trying out. We chatted a bit and, upon discovering he was a neurosurgeon and I a rocket engineer, realized we were the setup for a joke. Hello Kitty joined us as well.

The most hikers I’ve seen in one spot since CLEEF.

It was a nice evening. I got a few more rounds done on the socks, trying and failing to get past the toe increases before the sunlight died. Upon retiring to my tent I discovered that my sleeping pad was unfortunately still leaking, meaning that there must’ve been another hole somewhere beyond the one I’d patched (or maybe my patch was leaking). The site we were camping was close to a dirt road that turned off the main paved one and around 9pm a car must’ve accidentally taken it because as I was drifting off my tent suddenly lit up with headlights. I couldn’t see what was happening but thankfully the driver must’ve realized their mistake because they didn’t linger. It’s a good thing my tent is a bright orange/red color, a darker more neutral tent might not have been spotted in time.

Day 35: The Cold Rolls In

My ankle was bothering me this morning indicating I’d gone too far the previous day. That was reasonable although it was surprising to me that it was my left ankle, the slightly stronger leg. I managed it by wrapping the ankle and taking periodic breaks throughout the day where I lay down and elevated my legs, two of which turned into actual naps. I highly recommend sleeping on trail.

The distant sea of clouds.

Thankfully it was almost all downhill this day, walking along the creek for the first 8 miles then splitting off. I leapfrogged Hello Kitty all day long and met a few other new hikers, all of whose names I immediately forgot.

I find myself charmed by these little caterpillar nests. I think this is the Western Tent Caterpillar Moth?

The clouds started rolling in around 4pm and I could feel the temperature drop. I layered a little and managed to reach my camp about an hour later, a small site under a bridge very close to the turnoff to Cedar Glen.

The sky growing dark. No rain yet but definitely considering it.

After strategizing with Hello Kitty and Bear Pop, I decided to go into Cedar Glen the next day, grab a little more food, then hike the 10ish miles out to the Deep Creek Hot Springs. The weather forecast did warn of potential rain and snow in the night and unfortunately my stupid pad was still leaking at an increasingly fast rate. Ah, well.

Day 36: Through Rain, Sleet, or Snow

It ended up being a cold night and a wet morning. Drizzled a tad while we packed up but thankfully most of the rain must’ve come during the night. As planned, Hello Kitty and I hiked into town while Bear Pop headed onward to the hot springs. We hadn’t made it far before the clouds began to release their payload, starting as sleet then transitioning into proper snow. The walk into town was pretty dang uphill but thankfully we only needed to walk about 2 miles before a kind soul picked us up and gave us a ride to the grocery store.

Coming down in Cedar Glen. It was cold, wet, amd surprisingly slippery.

After restocking food we headed up to the malt shop for some hot food before heading back out. The snow had been continuing the past couple hours and we watched it come down as we ate our burgers. It was a damn good burger too. There were a bunch of other hikers there too, the same large trail family I’d met two day ago, and it sounded like they were going to a hotel to zero to dodge the cold weather. We headed back to trail however, resigning ourselves to the coming cold.

One really good burger.

The malt shop staff was nice enough to drive us partway to the trail, up to a locked gate. We headed out, passing multiple soaked hikers coming into town, but after about 20 minutes of walking, magic happened. The sleet stopped, the clouds cleared, and blue skys reigned. It had been my plan to go into town like this and I felt like an absolute genius, getting a hot burger and dodging the worst of the weather. 20 minutes later it started hailing sideways and the feeling faded.

Umbrella once again coming in clutch, even if it did make the wind gusts harder to manage.

We did manage to hit the 300 mile marker however and honestly, California hail is pretty easy hiking. The hailstones are at most the size of a bb pellet so they don’t hurt and unlike other forms of precipitation, you don’t really get wet which is nice. The gusts of wind did make it feel a little absurd though and at one point a rumble of thunder drove us into cover until that part of the storm passed.

Hello Kitty and I at the 300 mile marker!

My ankle was still hurting so I was going a little slow but I did run into Bear Pop who had stopped and set up camp due to the winter mix weather. I tried to sell her on hiking the last 3 miles to the hot springs but it was getting late so I continued alone. I hiked through the golden hour and arrived as it was getting properly dark. Thankfully the calorie bomb of a burger earlier that day meant I wasn’t hungry for dinner. I quickly set up camp then joined Hello Kitty, Cam, Francis, and Flamingo in the main hot spring for an evening soak. It had been a pretty eventful day but this was a genuinely pleasant way to end it.

The gorgeous canyon walk.

Trail Stats:

Catholes: 12

Stops to filter water: 35

Resupplies: 7

Hitches: 9

Zeros: 7

Crys on trail: 6

Blisters: 4

Gear repairs: 3