Today we headed back to the trail, and we were mostly successful in fighting the sluggishness that seems to come with the last day in town. We were helpfully woken up early by the dog in the room next to us, which got us going on packing and eating breakfast. During our trip to the grocery store yesterday we had picked up a few things for breakfast to save the time over going out. We were out the door in a surprisingly short amount of time.
We headed up the road towards the trailhead, hoping to catch a hitch. We hadn’t gone more than ten minutes before someone pulled over and offered us a ride. Gabriel was running some errands on his day off. He told us he was redoing his bathroom, so he was currently missing some important modern plumbing – something we can identify with! He saved us five miles and a few hours of roadwalking! Thanks for picking up two scruffy-looking schlubs like us!
Once back on the trail, we made great time even with full packs. We have some easy terrain coming up over the next few days until we start back up into the mountains after I-15. We hiked straight west, a new direction for us, and wound through the piney hills above Big Bear. The views of the desert to our right were amazing, and later in the day we were treated to glimpses of Big Bear Lake (the town) from across the lake of the same name. The mountains towering over the town all had streaks of fresh snow. Last night was a good one to spend in a hotel room!
After lunch we entered a burn area still recovering from a fire in 1999. The fire was so large that we’ll be walking through the damage tomorrow too as we head up the Deep Creek canyon. The area had a semi-permanent detour in place ever since and this is the first year that this section of actual PCT is officially open again. Lots of hikers, especially in the last few years, have ignored the detour but it’s good to know that the trail is back up to PCT standards.
We followed the ridges through the burn and gradually dropped down to Holcomb Creek. We passed our second trail camp of the day. They both had these cool solar pit toilets that were open-air behind a tall wooden enclosure. What a good idea to keep the stink down! Very nice backcountry facilities. A mile or so later, enough to put us out of earshot of the camp, we found a nice open spot near a small trickle of creek. It feels much warmer tonight than our last few nights out – one more sign that we’re heading into the desert again. It will probably be very hot over the next few days but at least we won’t be cold at night.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 286