Some days the miles take forever and some days they fly by so quickly we can hardly believe it. Yesterday and today are perfect examples of these opposites. We had some of the easiest trail yet today, with only a little gain in the morning and flat or downhill for the rest of the day. We walked mostly on compacted dirt and duff. All of this proves, of course, that we can make great time – as long as we’re hiking in cool weather on trail graded like a sidewalk.
The cold from the previous night continued into the afternoon. We were glad we had set up the tent – even with it and our 20-degree bags we were a little cold. When we finally forced ourselves out to get packed up, we found that we had camped near Matt and Jamie, the couple hiking with their two huskies. We are really surprised that we caught up with them since they hike quickly. Jamie shared some of their extra filtered water with us. We chatted about the trail for a bit and found out that it had been over 100 degrees the day they came down into the desert near Cabazon. I figured we had gotten lucky that day – even though it was a monotonous stretch at least it had been cool! We were fortunate yesterday too – the guidebook says that Mission Creek can be another hot stretch.
Jamie also shared the news that search and rescue teams were looking for three missing dayhikers. That explained the helicopter yesterday. These guys have been missing since Saturday and it sounds like they left without much warm clothing or water. Given how cold we were last night it sounds a little grim. As we were packing up the sheriff came by and made sure that we knew to keep an eye out. We heard helicopters all day.
As we hiked up to great views of the peaks all around us, we could see that the pines at higher altitudes were silvered over with frost. When we took a morning break we were rained on as the sun melted it from the needles. Later on we would get caught in some frozen rain – much better than actual rain since it bounced off our jackets without getting us wet.
We climbed up to the Coon Creek group camp, which had the unexpected luxury of a pit toilet and a trash can (along with a heavily-graffitied cabin). After a little more gain we started down an old jeep road. We passed a 250-mile marker someone had built out of pinecones. Just before lunch we passed “Predators in Action,” a company that trains large predators for movies and TV. It was a little sad to see bears, tigers, and cougars pacing in their cages.
The sun finally came out strongly at lunch, and we took our time in order to dry out our bags. When we sleep in a cold tent they can get a little damp from the moisture in our breath. If we were in for another cold night, we wanted to make sure they were as dry and as insulating as possible. After lunch we hit the trail hard to try and crank out another 10 miles. In no time at all we had done 3 without breaking a sweat. Then we got distracted…
First it was by a cache full of soda put out by local trail angels Papa Smurf and Mountain Mama. We each took one to have with dinner tonight. What a treat! Then, not a mile later, we an across a second cache maintained by the Big Bear Hostel. This was the hiker motherlode! Sweet tangerines, cookies, sodas, water, and a hiker first aid kit that even had tissues in it. To top it all off, we could enjoy our bounty while sitting in a recliner. There was even a mirror so we could clean ourselves up. It was hard to leave this one behind, but tomorrow’s town day was calling…
A few miles down the trail we reached Arrastre trail camp and the first water since our camp this morning. Luckily we hadn’t needed to carry much since it was so cold out. We took a few liters from the nearby trickle to filter after we set up camp tonight. Then we pushed on – too late to make all 20 miles we had hoped for, but close enough to make for a quick day tomorrow. We camped up on a ridge after climbing out of the Arrastre Creek drainage. It was a little exposed but we thought it would be warmer than sleeping down near the creek where all the cold air pooled. We had a beautiful view of the sunset on the nearby mountains. It turned all the clouds pink.
We have less than 8 miles until we reach our exit point tomorrow and they should be pretty level. After the last few days we’re looking forward to sleeping in a heated room. Big Bear is supposed to be a fun town for hikers. After a layover day and a zero, we’ll start our next segment towards Wrightwood. This marks the point where we swing west for a few hundred miles to skirt north of the LA basin. We’ve now completed 10% of the trail! It seems strange – on one hand, it feels like we haven’t been out here long enough to make it this far. On the other hand, we can remember almost every one of those miles. And 10% done means 90% left… We’ll keep focussing on the next stretch ahead of us, just like we have been. I’ll be dreaming about breakfast platters tonight.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 259-ish