Day 19: going up and up

Monday 5/7/12
Miles 232-249 (17 miles)
Elevation 8382'
Total # snakes encountered: 10

I went up almost 4,000 in elevation today. Holy cow! It was a rather gradual climb so it wasn't too bad. I definitely felt it temperature wise though. It got quite chilly as we climbed in elevation, and right now I'm huddled in my sleeping bag typing this so I don't want to reach outside to check the thermometer on my pack. Ugh I dont even wanna know how cold it's gonna be in the morning!! Lol. Darn, too bad I'm out of wine. That's always a nice way to wake up in the morning. Haha!

So today I went from sand and bushes to really tall pine trees. Man, they are some huge trees! So cool! I had my first encounter with poodle dog bush. It's a plant that grows in areas after a fire ripped through, and it can cause some horrible nasty reactions (like poison oak but worse) if you come in contact with it. I'll get a pic next time. There's a lot more further up the trail. Not looking forward to that. Bleh :(

The views today were amazing. It was so cool to look down at the long canyon that I came up from, and see the 10fwy waaaay off in the distance. I think I got a picture of it, not sure if you can make out the details though. And to think, I was just there!

My pack doesn't hurt as much. Eating a lot of food helped lower the pack weight. Haha. I've got 2 more days until I get into Big Bear. Ive decided to take the longer way into big bear, that way I can tackle 10 extra miles. Most people I know are hitching in at around mile 265, I'm taking a connector road at mile 275ish.

I saw more people today than I've seen in a long time. It's so cool to see old faces and meet new ones. Apparently I'm in the middle of the wave of people who hitched to the pct kickoff party from Warner springs. I've caught up to the group in front of me and the group behind me has caught up too, so we're now one giant jumble of people that's all about to hit big bear in the next couple days. Lol. It's like a pct hiker take-over of the town! But in a good way. :) That's definitely what it felt like in Idyllwild. There were hikers everywhere!

So apparently there is a private zoo about a mile up. Kinda random ya? U can actually hear some of the animals every now and then. I imagine it must be quite unnerving, for people who don't know a zoo is there, to hear lions and bears in the middle of the night. Lol.

Tomorrow I hope to do a lot of miles, so that on Wednesday I don't need to do big miles to get into big bear. Not sure if I'm gonna get an early start though. I guess it depends on how cold it is when I wake up. Haha :) Nap time!