Day 20: the long way into big bear

Tuesday 5/8/12
Miles 249-269 (20 miles)
Elevation 6885'
Total # snakes encountered: 11

Yesterday I was saying how there was a private zoo right along the trail. I walked by it in the morning. I took a pic of one of the bears, it had just woke up and we were staring at each other for a while. Poor guy, it must totally suck to be caged up like that.

It's really nice hanging out with people who have experience with this trail. I really learn a lot from them. This morning I was camped out with some folk who have done this trail before, and I ran into them again at the Big Bear Hostel Cache. The 3 places of lodging in big bear all have caches along the trail, it is so epic :) anyhow, the 2 guys in the pic are Atlas (in black, I met him in Idyllwild) and Alphabet Soup. The man and woman is Kirk and Colors, and the solo lady is Upside Down. I also met Mother Goose, who is a 64 year old woman that has done more that 34,000 miles of hiking. Yeah, you read that right. 34 *thousand* miles. Holy wow, that woman is amazing!!

Anyhow caches are so awesome. The hostel cache had sodas, cookies and snacks, and further down the trail, Motel 6 had a cache full of sodas. What a treat! :) thank you Motel 6, Big Bear Hostel, and Nature's Inn for the water, soda, and treats!!

Today's hiking wasn't as scenic as some of the other days, but it's all good, I'm just stoked there is no snow!! Lol. But oh man it was so cold this morning!! It's ok though, it makes me walk faster. :). One of the more random sights today, I was walking and walking, kinda spaced out and in my zone, and I round a corner to see this huge house with its own windmill power generator. I took a pic of it. I mean, I guess it's not all that random but it took me by surprise because I was just staring at dirt and bushes and trees all day and suddenly there is this huge house in front of me. Oh, I saw another snake today. I took a pic of it. I think it's a king snake, it was really pretty.

So, I am currently camping on the side of a hill right now on a slight incline, which is kind of a bummer. Lol. My tent is slippery so I hope I don't slide on the ground cloth and pull my stakes out. It really sucks when my tent collapses on me in the middle of the night. Lol. But the ground is kind of weird so I couldn't get my stakes in too well. I just piled a bunch of rocks on top of each stake, hopefully it holds.

I should have camped at an actual campground I passed about 1.5 miles ago. I took a pic of the sign of that camp. At least there was flat ground there. I passed it up because I wanted to get more miles in. Problem is the trail is going uphill so there isn't anywhere good to camp, and I was running out of time, and this is the only place that wasn't at a 45 degree angle. Lol. At least there is no wind. Hopefully condensation isn't too bad. The good thing about wind is it keeps the condensation away. The bad thing about wind is its cold!! Lol.

Anyhow, I have about 10 miles to go tomorrow before I hitch into big bear. Most of the hikers hitch into big bear where the trail crosses highway 18, which was 4 miles ago. That's where this morning's crew and yesterday's crew hitched from. Alphabet Soup has been taking about food for the last 1.5 days. He was quite anxious to get into town. Lol. Man those guys really hauled ass down the trail to get into Big Bear, because I didn't see them all day!

Im taking the longer route in, because i want to bang out more miles, plus im not in a hurry to get into town. Im absolutely loving this trail sooooo much!! :) But i definitely don't mind taking a break. My feet could use some rest. And i need some space to properly stretch. My tent is pretty small. And I really want ice cream! Lol. And cheese. And yogurt. Someone said I should eat yogurt whenever I can, since I'm treating my water with bleach, it'll help replenish all the good bacteria the bleach is probably killing. I wonder if frozen yogurt counts. Haha :) Goodnight all!! :)