Day 13: mile 315

The hike today was all down Deep creek and its tributaries. Much of it reminded me of the arroyo seco, or maybe carmel river, and I even met a fly fisherman who reminded me of Nick in more ways than one.

I stopped at the infamous Deep creek hot springs for a quick dip. The water was nice and hot, but it was a bit crowded for my taste.

Day 12: Big Bear, mile 285

I woke this morning a few miles outside of Big Bear. After hiking the remaining 6 miles to Hwy 18, I made the worst decision of my trip so far: instead of catching a ride in to town with another hiker, I decided to try to walk into town so that I could leave the other end of town without feeling like I had "missed any footsteps". What followed was a beautiful hike down the pct, followed by a hellacious road walk. 

The road section was only 2 miles or so, and at first I thought if there wasn't a shoulder, I'd just walk through the dry lakebed. However, reaching the lake, posted signs alerted me that it was a fragile preserve and walking off the trail or road is prohibited. Since the shoulder was only about 3 inches wide (literally), I had to bushwavk up the side of what I presume is a rattlesnake infested hillside. Fortunately, no rattlesnakes were seen.

On the plus side, the hike out of town was nice.

Day 11: Mile 259

Camped outside of Big Bear tonight, headed in to town tomorrow morning for a resupply.

Day 10: Mile 231

This morning started out with a continuation of yesterdays downhill off Mt San Jacinto.

I stopped at  Ziggy and the Bears (trail angels) for what turned out to be an extended break. After a few slices of cold pizza I hiked up to Mission Creek with Ethan.

Day 9 : mile 201

After a rejuvinating zero day in Idylwild, I was ready to hike. I headed up Devils Slide around 6am. The was a few inches of snow everywhere, making for a beautiful morning

I met a guy from pakalnd named Ethan, and he convinced me to hike up San Jacinto with him:

After the peak there was 8000 feet of downhill to deal with before we reached our camp at mile 201.

Day 8: Idylwild Zero

Today is my first zero. It wasn't really planned, but the weather is bad outside. There was 3-4 inches last night in town, so probably even more up on Mt San Jacinto.

People in town say this is the most snow they've had all winter.

Day 7: Idylwild

Last night I slept on the Paradise Cafe porch with some other hikers. Everyone is super accomodating to hikers down here.

Today I roadwalked around a fire closure. Some of it was on the highway, and some was on dirt roads and trails.

Tonight I'm staying in a cabin in Idylwild. We are supposed to get a few inches of snow in town tonight and probably more up on the mountain, so tomorrow might be a zero day.