One of the guys staying at the Natures Inn agreed to give me a lift back to the trail at hwy 18. Greg said early was good, I suggested 6, he agreed, and of course he was late getting up. Finally got up there around 7 ish. Big thanks to Greg for the lift.
There was a single person tent setup next to the trail head. Spoke with a guy packing up and said it was a gal he dropped last night. He hiked the trail in ’14 and was Angeling for her. They were late getting there so he just camped it and was heading home.
Hit the trail and started climbing. It was a great morning. Alice says she wants more scenery photos, so here it goes.
Most of the day was a pleasant walk through pine trees and a good, soft trail of pine needs on a loam trail. Lot of shade
Girl in the tent apparently woke up, packed, then passed me on the trail. She didn’t say much, seemed to want to get some miles asap. Soon after she passed me, I caught up. She was posting a written message on the trail stating “Rattlesnake ahead, be careful”. Thought that was cute. Asked her if she was my snake bait for the day? That got a frown. She blew past me and didn’t see her till the evening.
Around 11 I found a cool lookout on a rocky outcrop. Time for some lunch of hot spuds and my newest innovation of spinkled bacon bits. Yum.
Take note of the alpine meadow in the view. Little did I know that I’d spend the next 4+ hours walking around that thing.
While enjoying my taters Wing It showed up! Hadn’t seen him since Warner Springs. We spent a little time catching up. Neither he nor I have seen any other Indians or Pakistanis on the trail. We agreed we need to fix that. Had a good laugh about his hair/beard combination. I think he’s becoming wiser with every inch it grows. He should be a shaman in a couple months. I shot a promotional picture
The views kept coming. Here are a couple of Big Bear lake. You can see the two ski hills of bear mountain (left) and snow summit (right). In the background is San Gorgino which is 11.5k feet. According to a local I chatted with, it is the tallest peak in southern cal.
More walking on nice trail. This section is well maintained. I think it might even be Alice-able. Have to bring her up here sometime.
It was about then that I realized I was walking around the meadow I glimpsed at the beginning and stared at during lunch.
2:00, the damn thing is still there
3:00, finally I’m through it.
The remaining 1.5 hours was through a huge burned area. Only took a couple of pics. This used to be densely forested….now it is a gloomy barren spectacle.
I caught up with Wing again during the last segment and we chatted technology for a while. Nice diversion. We landed at Holcomb creek (mile 285.9) in a nice open meadow. Good primitive camping here.
Found snake bait girl with a dude named Toe Jam (Jonathon, since he’s not sure if this is real trail name). Turns out Jonathon is from Evansville, IN, fairly close to where I grew up and went to college. Snake bait’s trail name is Blue and she was a little more talkative. She’s a nurse from Michigan who is section hiking a 100 miles this year.
While we were sitting there, a load of people started turning up. Fire Ranger, Gordan (Australian on his second attempt), Hip, Happy Times (a permanently smiling hippy dude), Vipr and her sister Fun Dip from Seattle, and others. A large group of Germans turned up as well Felix who I hiked with a bit earlier, Fireball (carries a flask of cinnamin whiskey), a brother sister pair, and others. Most of these folks I’d seen and hiked with before. It was quite the reunion. Should have got a group photo….
Fireball had a raging fire going in their camp, so Jonathon and I left the Americans and headed over. It was a lot of fun. The Germans were cooking marsh mellows and passing around the whiskey. In another hour all the camps combined around the fire. Must have been 17+ people there.
Did a 17 miler today. The old man (me) needed some zz’s so I took off early. They were still going at it when I crashed at 9.