I slept in this morning in our nicely wooded campsite until I heard Phantom and Good To Go stirring and beginning to pack up. We were on the trail a little after 8am, though later than yesterday. I wasn’t too concerned about beating the heat since we would be climbing quickly to snow. The first four miles were a challenging 2000 foot climb. At times I felt I was crawling up the side of the mountain with weight on my legs holding me down. I felt extremely lightheaded and dizzy on the climb, wondering what in the heck was causing that. Was it the elevation? My nauseousness from earlier heat exhaustion? High blood pressure? Age reality? Who knows?
After stopping at the head waters of Mission Creek for a break, Phantom and Good To Go caught up to me. Phantom was struggling too, with nausea, so I suspect it’s been a heat/dry related issue coupled with higher elevations than back east. After the break we kept ascending and soon found ourselves in snowy patches on the trail. The views looking back toward 11,000 foot Mt. Gorgonio and later back to the San Jacintos across the Palm Desert were magnificent. We stopped for a lunch break in cool, windy conditions with clouds hugging the tops of the high peaks.
I got a cell phone signal for the first time in three days (we have been in very remote back country) and listened to voice mails. One was from Doodlebug, who was in Big Bear city and had met Heinz Kass, who is Nitro’s dad. Nitro is hiking ahead of us and we had spent some time with her and Flamingo back in Idyllwild at the Tahquitz Motel hot tubs. So Doodlebug and Nitro had met and Doodlebug’s message said that if we wanted to we could get a ride to Nitro’s home from Highway 38 (near the trail, but 17 miles short of Big Bear City). We (Phantom, Good To Go, and I), collectively wanted to do it, so we called Doodlebug back to say we wanted to side trip. We lost cell phone reception but were hopeful she and Nitro’s dad would be waiting for us at the road crossing.
After plowing through lots more snow covered trail, then descending to a very confusing section of trail which was poorly marked and even more inaccurately shown on the map, we finally (after retracing our steps for half an hour) found the trail again and came out to a dirt road where a car was parked. Out popped Doodlebug and Heinz. We piled our packs in the back, loaded ourselves in the car and were soon in Big Bear City where we stopped at a convenience store for some cold sodas and snacks. From there Heinz drove us approximately 30 miles to the Apple Valley area of California, a desert community. Just a few miles before reaching Nitro’s home, we passed one of Roy Roger’s ranches (which is for sale, by the way).
Upon arriving at Nitro’s home, we engaged in the usual activities that make us so thankful for the little things like a hot shower, laundry, and a wonderful meal prepared by Heinz (good old burgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, potato salad, chips, beer, sodas…it doesn’t get any better.) I caught up on Internet stuff including checking on finances, etc. then joined Nitro, Doodlebug, Phantom and Good To Go in the outdoor Jacuzzi for a couple hours of trail talk. What fantastic trail magic. Foot update; the superfeet insole was cutting the inside of my arch so a couple days ago I switched back to the original insole. So far, after two days of hiking, there has been no foot pain and no tendonitis. So, hopefully, my foot woes are behind me except for the blisters that just seem to come naturally with long distance hiking. We’ll be back on the trail tomorrow afternoon with 17 miles to get into Big Bear City. All is well.
Today’s mileage: 14.8. Cumulative mileage: 249.8. Weather: sunny, then partly cloudy. Low 62: high 72.
