To Big Bear Lake We Go

Hiked 16 easy miles today, rolling and flat, but it was cold!  Brrr!  Good hiking weather.  The terrain was mostly in the forest with big beautiful cedar trees and various pines, junipers, spruce, noble fir and oaks too.  It was quite lovely.

After coffee and a breakfast of power bars, we packed up camp and I wore most of my clothes ( smart wool shirt, pants, rain pants, down jacket, rain jacket, polar fleece hat, buff scarf, sun gloves, and warm gloves!).  Yes.  It was cold.      We shortly came upon what our map called animal cages and we saw tigers and bears basking in the sun.  I talked to the bear and he rolled over onto his back and turned his head and looked at me while his paw appeared to wave.  Cute stuff.   During the night I had awoken to a strange animal sound and now realized it likely came from here. 

Eventually it warmed up a bit and I packed away the down jacket.  Later we left the forest and came into open sage country with a few Joshua trees.  Clouds began to roll in and the wind had a fresh bite to it.  I thought a snow flake fell, but then dismissed that notion.  We arrived at highway 18 at about 2 pm and snow did begin to fall.  We were told we could hitch a ride into town, but we were hesitant because we are wusses,  so we called the number for the posted Big Bear Hostel ride.  We waited.  We got cold.  Another hiker, Karma from Sacramento, joined us.  Our trail friend Oblivious showed up, but he chose to hike on into the snow.   No Big Bear for him.  

Our ride eventually arrived and took us to the hostel where we were greeted by the young men A to Z from Oregon.  Z seemed genuinely glad to see me well as he had last seen me pretty sick on the trail.   Lots of other hikers are here, some like Poppa Sol we know, others we recognize. 

We hurried around town and did our grocery shopping and found me a hat.   We showered and Mark's now doing our  laundry here.  Its a very convenient place for hikers.  A bit too many people mingle around for my comfort, as I'm kind of uncomfortable in crowds, so I've been snacking and resting in  our private room.

Tomorrow morning they will shuttle us back to the trail and off we will go.  About 76 more miles to our finale for this season's hike.   We think we will make it in 4 days.  Time will tell.