Day 22 : 2nd Zero in Big Bear – “Spic N Span’s Zero”
We headed for the Laundromat to help Spic N Span with her Zero day…When we got back she got a call and had to head home for a family emergency. Will and I decided to take the room (since we already paid for another night) and not push a few extra miles in the afternoon We said our goodbyes and Will and I (mostly Will) made dinner. I watched Jester attempt to drink 1 gallon of chocolate milk in one hour. Well he failed and it all got caught it on film. One last “hot tub” for me, TV and off to bed.
Day 23: Van Dusen Rd to Holcomb Creek
Got a great jump start on everyone leaving today because we hopped off at VanDusen rather than Hwy 18. Eric the Black gave us a ride and we tossed him gas $$ for his gas juggling jeep. Off we went. Most of the day was a road walk detour around a fire damaged area—which seemed to take forever—but at least until the sun went down literally at dusk we make it to the creek. Both of us soar (in multiple ways) from the road—which road walks are never really all that fun…
Ran into a guy at the creek that spoke little English—I think he’s thru-hiking we may have heard of him from some of the other hikers. Camped right along side the creek. Very lovely Spot.
Day 24: Creek to Warm Spring along trail
We creek side walked for a while. Met some nice weekend hikers from Big Bear and had lunch with them by the river with a big bridge before the Hot Springs. We proceeded to the Hot Springs but would find ourselves at the “Warm Springs” instead. Rand into 2 nice Forest Rangers a woman and older man who were both very excited about our trip. Ran into a thru hiker from last year who told us he missed the Springs the year before so to keep our eyes peeled. We were looking so closely we spotted a trail off the PCT that seemed to match the description so we took it. It was a steep descent that ended with basically a rock climb down onto a sandy small beach. Too amazing to pass up—we set up camp—dipped in the warm springs and decided to take a zero the next day to really enjoy the setting.
Day 25: Warm Springs “Nero” to Just after Spillway/Dam
Nero was great—basically by ourselves until 2 gentlemen showed up with their dog. They informed us the “hot springs” was 2 miles up, darn we though. We decided to cut our “Zero” short and head for the Hot Springs. We got to the Hot Springs, it was crowded and we were already on our feet and wanted to get some miles in—so we pressed on.
Ran into tons of graffiti on the trail. Came upon the dam—there was a big Rattler there—will took a nice picture. Finding the trail was a bit sketchy—but we forded the river, talked with a few other hikers and then were off to find a camp site for the night. Will pumped water and got bit 30 times. While I set up the tent on a bunch of plants because there were no bare spots to be found on the trail. Called Mom & Dad—figured there must be cell service if there was graffiti everywhere. Then we ate some amazing Mt. House dinners and listed to motorcycles go through the spillway tunnel. We went from the most beautiful camp spot the night before to probably the least. Ah well off to bed we went…
Day 26: Spillway to 10 miles before I15 (aka McDonald’s)
Got up and went about 1 mile and a trail angel made us Rootbeer floats for breakfast—yummy. We flew to the next Hwy and then took a little longer getting around this lake. Up and down, up and down. Decided not to camp at the campground and keep heading toward McDonald’s—it’s calling us, haha—we keep meeting all these new hikers after our oh so many days off. Kinda cool and kinda sad that we’re getting behind the people we’d been hiking with thus far. Speaking of which we found the flag Yak had been carrying! He lost it by the lake—we’re hoping we can catch up to him so we can give him back the flag!
We pressed on past the lake campground, got the climb for the next day out of the way and now we’re camped in the world’s smallest/tightest amp spot with a creek running literally 2 inches from our tent on one side and willows pressed up against the other. But as we have found with other late night camp spot debacles—we called it wuits because we had found something before the inevitable lack of camping spaces on the impeding 10 miles of switchbacks ahead and with that I bid you goodnight with the very near sound of streams running, crickets, grogs, and overflying Jets…
Day 27: Mile 332 to Swarthout Canyon Casche
Made it to I15 by 10 AM which = Breakfast at McDonalds! Steph ate: bacon egg and cheese biscuit sandwich, hashbrowns, large OJ, double cheese burger, 2 chicken wraps and ½ an Ice Cream Sundae with Fudge and nuts. Will ate: 3 double Cheese burgers, 2 chicken sandwiches and the other half of the fudge sundae.
10 miles “down” to I15 this morning—hah you know how “descents” go on the PCT (climb 2,000 feet to drop 3,000.). So really we had a fair amount of climbing. Sill though, we figured it was 11 or 12 and come to find out it was 10 AM. In time for breakfast.
After McDonald’s we went to Subway and got 2 of their $5 footlongs—fully loaded. Then filled up on powerade and water and hit the trail. It was hot so we took a ciesta for more than 2 hours. We push on to the water cache, we don’t need water, but we’ve got to conserve water because we have a long dry stretch ahead.
Day 28: May 22nd Will’s Birthday
Swarthout Canyon to Guffy Campground
Rained a little on us last night. Glad we put the rainfly on. Big climb today up 5,000 feet. Started to snow on us and got real cold around 7500 feet. Guffy campground is right on the top o fthis ridge of 8250 foot. Really Really cold. Took me an hour to warm up my sleeping bag. Will went to get water and I made dinner, then the fog rolled in at the twilight (after sunset hour) very scary movie creepy. I was more than happy to get back to the tent. Very Cold. Then it started to snow…
RSS Feed