I fell in the creek today. I woke up after a wonderful night of sleep on my Thermarest Prolite 4 and started hiking, just like any other day. Mornings always seem uneventful, I think it’s because I feel fresh and focused and we’re moving fast. About 9 miles into our day we ran into some more thru-hikers. At mile 14 of the day we stopped at a campsite to eat some lunch. Shortly after stopping we were joined by the couple we had passed earlier. Their trail names were Bacon and Meander and they were from Madison, WI – the only people so far who had actually heard of /been to our hometown. Another couple joined us a few minutes later and another guy came up just a little after that. Lunch was a terrific social event, but I didn’t get the chance I was hoping for some time to get a little ahead by starting to write today’s journal. We left lunch around 2 pm. The trail wound back and forth through this gigantic burned area. Even the desert looks lush compared to a recently burned hillside, with only the blackened tree trunks standing against the brown hillside. We got down to the creek and out of the burned area and the first two times we crossed the creek I didn’t have any problems, but the third time I fell in – like all the way in. The rocks that I had to cross the creek on were just a little too far apart for my short little legs, my right foot slipped in and before I knew it I was plopped down on my butt in the water. I still have no idea what happened, but all my stuff got wet. We stopped and made dinner so that all of my stuff could dry while it was still sunny out. Dinner was beef rice-a-roni and it was absolutely disgusting like rice and gravy. So, unsatisfied and slightly damp , we walked another 5 miles before settling down into the only square of flat, rock free land. The tent is up, my thermarest is inflated, and now it is off to bed.

Woke up first thing in the morning but didn’t get rolling until 6:30. We hiked 11 uneventful miles before reaching the highway to Big Bear around 11 am. There wasn’t much traffic on the road and there was some construction down the hill so we were concerned that we might not be able to get a ride. Eventually an 88 year old man picked us up. The guy was very nice and drove us back into Big Bear City after making a mistake and taking us to Big Bear Lake, but all he talked about the whole time was how much money he had made and lost and spent and all of the houses he had owned. It was an excellent reminder of why I’m out here and not in the rat race. In the end he asked us to remain honest people and dropped us off at Thelma’s – the restaurant we planned on eating at. From there we walked to the post office to get the package my parents mailed us which contained our inflatable thermarests and an extra phone charger. The people at the post office were very helpful and nice; they even took our pictures to add to a poster of through hikers that they kept on the wall. With the contents of our packaged stowed in our packs, we walked back to Thelma’s to grab some lunch. We had heard that they served an enormous breakfast, so Matt had their huge breakfast special and I had eggs and corned beef hash. The servings were huge and the food was pretty good. Our waitress was a local trail angel and was kind enough to give us her number in case we needed anything while we were in town or a ride back to the trail. From Thelma’s we went to the grocery store, but their stock was pretty wiped out so we had to go to both gas stations in town also to complete our resupply. A handful of people stopped by to chat or ask us questions while we were repackaging our food. Everyone was super nice. Our last stop was the hardware store to get some alcohol to burn in our stove. Also near the hardware store there was supposed to be a place that served awesome ribs so we looked around for it, having committed to a second lunch. We couldn’t find the ribs, but instead we found the Broadway Cafe, a sandwich shop that was right next to the community theater. The women who ran the place were very friendly and really chatted us up. Their food was good, Matt had a huge burger and I had a chicken club sandwich and they gave us a large order of fries, even though meals were only supposed to come with small fries. I would highly recommend this place to hikers – the service was wonderful, the food was both big and satisfying, and everyone who came into the restaurant wanted to talk with us even though we were dirty and smelly and weird. While we were eating, one of the members of the theater, who had just finished practicing with his barbershop quartet, came in to get some food. The guy offered to take us back to the trail when we were finished eating, which we accepted with enthusiasm. Our ride back to the trail was much more interesting than the ride to town, as we learned a little about another person who was putting forth an effort to do all the things in life that make him happy. I didn’t really like the town, but all of the people in Big Bear City were so friendly that I can really only say good things about it. We hiked about 6 more miles along the side of a hill that mostly followed the highway to Big Bear. Once again the walking was rather boring and I didn’t see much of the scenery because I was so busy talking to Matt about our day. Now we are camped on the only flat spot we’ve seen inmiles, just off the side of the trail. I’m eating some strawberry sugar wafer cookies for dinner and then going to bed.

Woke up first thing in the morning but didn’t get rolling until 6:30. We hiked 11 uneventful miles before reaching the highway to Big Bear around 11 am. There wasn’t much traffic on the road and there was some construction down the hill so we were concerned that we might not be able to get a ride. Eventually an 88 year old man picked us up. The guy was very nice and drove us back into Big Bear City after making a mistake and taking us to Big Bear Lake, but all he talked about the whole time was how much money he had made and lost and spent and all of the houses he had owned. It was an excellent reminder of why I’m out here and not in the rat race. In the end he asked us to remain honest people and dropped us off at Thelma’s – the restaurant we planned on eating at. From there we walked to the post office to get the package my parents mailed us which contained our inflatable thermarests and an extra phone charger. The people at the post office were very helpful and nice; they even took our pictures to add to a poster of through hikers that they kept on the wall. With the contents of our packaged stowed in our packs, we walked back to Thelma’s to grab some lunch. We had heard that they served an enormous breakfast, so Matt had their huge breakfast special and I had eggs and corned beef hash. The servings were huge and the food was pretty good. Our waitress was a local trail angel and was kind enough to give us her number in case we needed anything while we were in town or a ride back to the trail. From Thelma’s we went to the grocery store, but their stock was pretty wiped out so we had to go to both gas stations in town also to complete our resupply. A handful of people stopped by to chat or ask us questions while we were repackaging our food. Everyone was super nice. Our last stop was the hardware store to get some alcohol to burn in our stove. Also near the hardware store there was supposed to be a place that served awesome ribs so we looked around for it, having committed to a second lunch. We couldn’t find the ribs, but instead we found the Broadway Cafe, a sandwich shop that was right next to the community theater. The women who ran the place were very friendly and really chatted us up. Their food was good, Matt had a huge burger and I had a chicken club sandwich and they gave us a large order of fries, even though meals were only supposed to come with small fries. I would highly recommend this place to hikers – the service was wonderful, the food was both big and satisfying, and everyone who came into the restaurant wanted to talk with us even though we were dirty and smelly and weird. While we were eating, one of the members of the theater, who had just finished practicing with his barbershop quartet, came in to get some food. The guy offered to take us back to the trail when we were finished eating, which we accepted with enthusiasm. Our ride back to the trail was much more interesting than the ride to town, as we learned a little about another person who was putting forth an effort to do all the things in life that make him happy. I didn’t really like the town, but all of the people in Big Bear City were so friendly that I can really only say good things about it. We hiked about 6 more miles along the side of a hill that mostly followed the highway to Big Bear. Once again the walking was rather boring and I didn’t see much of the scenery because I was so busy talking to Matt about our day. Now we are camped on the only flat spot we’ve seen inmiles, just off the side of the trail. I’m eating some strawberry sugar wafer cookies for dinner and then going to bed.

The first marathon day of the trip! Our morning started around 7 am with pop-tarts as usual. All day was fairly uneventful, part of what made it easy to walk this far. The trail hiked us up out of the canyon we were in last night and then gradually descended for the rest of the day. The miles were easy and fast. We stopped for lunch at a road and firebreak at the top of the canyon, but the cloudy afternoon got us moving after only about 45 minutes of relaxing. We descended about 3,000 ft without anything to talk about until the cages. Near the last three miles of hiking we approached an area on the map labelled “animalcages” the cages were bigger than I had expected and housed 2 grizzly bears, a tiger, a wolf, and a lion. I don’t know why these people had so many large predators in their backyard and the whole thing made me strangely uncomfortable. A mile after the cages we experienced our first trail magic – a cooler full of Hawaiian Punch and cookies, along with a couch to sit on whil we snacked. It was all put out there by the hostel in big bear city. We enjoyed the snack and felt rejuvenated for the last two miles of our long day. We pulled in to the trail camp at around 7 pm and were delighted to find a picnic table and a fire ring to cook in. We had a quick dinner of cheddar-broccoli rice and noodles and now we are off to bed.

Last night was the best sleep I’ve gotten on the trail. I woke up around 5 am but decided to back to sleep for awhile because getting up didn’t seem that important. We were hiking toward the highway underpass by 7 am and the desert floor already felt hot; in reality it was only like 65 degrees but something about the cracked earth, scrubby plants, and full exposure to the sun always gives the illusion of extreme heat. There was a water cache at the underpass with a trail register. We signed our names but didn’t need any water so we moved on quickly. After about 4 miles of hiking we were climbing up into a wind farm that we had been able to see all day yesterday. It was cool to see all of the windmills going about their business of waving to the world and sending energy zipping along wires to power air conditioners in Palm Springs. We climbed up a canyon and it seemed way more difficult than it should have been because I downed a Snickers bar about halfway up and felt like puking the rest of the way. The remainder of the morning was just up and over ridges, growing ever higher, until we reached Whitewater River. The river looked like a huge dry alkali flat from above and, for the most part, it was until we got to the river in the center of the rocky, barren flood plain and found a ten foot wide river that was flowing just over two feet deep. We took a break at the river so Matt could wash the dirt off of his legs and I could rinse out some of my clothes. It felt great the wash the crusty salt and sunscreen off my face and put on a shirt that wasn’t all rimpled with stiffened sweat. We planned on eating lunch at a small stream over the next ridge, but the stream never came and before we knew it we were looking down on Mission Creek – 16 miles into our day. We made our own shade with our sheet of Tyvek so that we could get a break from the sun and eat something before walking the dozen or so switchbacks (more appropriately sized than yesterday’s) down to the creek. While we were eating, a hummingbird came and sat about 2 feet away from us on the string that was holding up our tarp. The hummingbirds out here seem very comfortable around and curious about people. After lunch we saw a 15 inch rattlesnake that rattled at me but then moved over to share the trail. It was a bit unnerving so I let Matt take the lead for a bit. We got to the creek bed and found a much more inviting scene than that of the previous river. The banks were lined with cottonwoods and sycamores and there were lots of flowers and scrambling lizards. The trail, however was much harder to follow and crossed the creek about 25 times in the 6 miles we hiked along the creek bed. The crossings seemed particularly irritating because the water level is up so high this year that all of the good places to cross were submerged. We called it quits for the night at a small flat spot above the river. After setting up the tent I went down near the river to cook while Matt got some water and washed up. The mac and cheese turned out gross so I’m going to bed completely unsatisfied, but happy to be falling asleep to the gentle babbling of the water below us.

Last night was the best sleep I’ve gotten on the trail. I woke up around 5 am but decided to back to sleep for awhile because getting up didn’t seem that important. We were hiking toward the highway underpass by 7 am and the desert floor already felt hot; in reality it was only like 65 degrees but something about the cracked earth, scrubby plants, and full exposure to the sun always gives the illusion of extreme heat. There was a water cache at the underpass with a trail register. We signed our names but didn’t need any water so we moved on quickly. After about 4 miles of hiking we were climbing up into a wind farm that we had been able to see all day yesterday. It was cool to see all of the windmills going about their business of waving to the world and sending energy zipping along wires to power air conditioners in Palm Springs. We climbed up a canyon and it seemed way more difficult than it should have been because I downed a Snickers bar about halfway up and felt like puking the rest of the way. The remainder of the morning was just up and over ridges, growing ever higher, until we reached Whitewater River. The river looked like a huge dry alkali flat from above and, for the most part, it was until we got to the river in the center of the rocky, barren flood plain and found a ten foot wide river that was flowing just over two feet deep. We took a break at the river so Matt could wash the dirt off of his legs and I could rinse out some of my clothes. It felt great the wash the crusty salt and sunscreen off my face and put on a shirt that wasn’t all rimpled with stiffened sweat. We planned on eating lunch at a small stream over the next ridge, but the stream never came and before we knew it we were looking down on Mission Creek – 16 miles into our day. We made our own shade with our sheet of Tyvek so that we could get a break from the sun and eat something before walking the dozen or so switchbacks (more appropriately sized than yesterday’s) down to the creek. While we were eating, a hummingbird came and sat about 2 feet away from us on the string that was holding up our tarp. The hummingbirds out here seem very comfortable around and curious about people. After lunch we saw a 15 inch rattlesnake that rattled at me but then moved over to share the trail. It was a bit unnerving so I let Matt take the lead for a bit. We got to the creek bed and found a much more inviting scene than that of the previous river. The banks were lined with cottonwoods and sycamores and there were lots of flowers and scrambling lizards. The trail, however was much harder to follow and crossed the creek about 25 times in the 6 miles we hiked along the creek bed. The crossings seemed particularly irritating because the water level is up so high this year that all of the good places to cross were submerged. We called it quits for the night at a small flat spot above the river. After setting up the tent I went down near the river to cook while Matt got some water and washed up. The mac and cheese turned out gross so I’m going to bed completely unsatisfied, but happy to be falling asleep to the gentle babbling of the water below us.