May 7-8: I was not over tired. The weather report was right. We had snow on the way. I woke up to ice in my water bottles and the very tip off nose (the only part of my body outside the sleeping bag) like an icicle. I have a rule when hiking- you do NOT hike in your sleeping clothes nor sleep in your hiking clothes. With one exception: IF it is freezing in the morning AND you are hiking into town WHERE there are laundry facilities, THEN it is okay to hike in sleeping clothes. So the hiking clothes went on over the sleeping clothes, and then covered with my puffy jacket, hat, and gloves. Off to Big Bear Lake!
Despite the cold, it was a rather pleasant walk into Big Bear Lake. The sun was coming up over the mountains, the birds and animals were scurrying around, the fire to the south was out. I had been wondering about bear activity in this area, and then I came across something that answered my question: the famous "magic dumpster"
The magic dumpster is often filled with soda, cookies, sandwiches and snickers. Except that I was going by at 6am, so no treats for me. 😕 I did sit on the adjacent sofa, though. Just because. It was cold.
As the sun came up, it warmed up and off came the hat, the gloves, the puffy, and eventually I stopped behind a bush and off came the sleeping clothes. We dropped down in elevation a bit and has someone nice views of a more desert-y sort.
Wallaby and I reached the road intoBig Bear around 11:30 (16 miles by 11:30- not bad!) and got a hitch into town to the hiker hostel. And about an hour later, Lauren appeared! So we were a trio once again.
The stay at Big Bear was filled with ally he things you do in town- laundry, shower, re supply, replace broken gear. The weather got progressively colder. We at are at a delicious pizza place, has ice cream, and watched the snow fall from inside. We went with a bunch of others hikers to see The Avengers at the movies, and more or less hung out and rested.
Overall, our timing could not have been better. No wet shoes. No frozen sleeping bags. Just a good rest day in a nice town.
Peace love and trail magic!
RSS Feed
