This may be a brief entry because the mosquitoes have finally found us tonight! This morning our crew was up early and we were all hitchhiking to get out of town by 8:00 a.m. Phantom, Good To Go, Brian and I were all hitching one way; Doodlebug and Nitro were on the same road but hitching the other direction since they are 13 miles ahead of us. The gals got a ride first. After 20 minutes, the four guys got picked up by the same guy who picked us up and drove us into town two days ago!
By 8:45 a.m. we were hiking with a nice gentle climb to 7,800 feet then a general flat to descending trail the balance of the day. We had great views of Big Bear City and Big Bear Lake below with the San Bernadinos glistening with snow and a deep blue sky as a backdrop. Our pace was fairly leisurely and we were able to talk a lot with easy tread, so we had a fun hiking day with a nice lunch spot in the shade, lots of water for filtering, and plenty of trees and forested areas to enjoy along the route. There were a few blow downs along the trail but they were not difficult to negotiate.
We stopped to cook dinner at Little Bear Springs Trail where we had a chance to visit with Jump Back and Pepper Man who we hadn’t seen since Warner Springs and Jeanette (now Nightingale) and Vin who we hadn’t seen since Idyllwild. We are nearing some natural hot springs along the trail so we hiked another two miles down Holcomb Creek after dinner, stopping around 7:20pm.
We quickly spread out our sleeping gear and found our bug nets to ward off the mosquitoes, yet we (Brian, Good To Go, Phantom, and me) are all cowboy camping again. We have a moonlit night and calm wins and it’s 49 degrees at 6,500 feet with a snow-covered north facing ridge just to our south and a nearby rushing stream. We’ll push out early tomorrow morning so we can get to the hot springs to enjoy by late afternoon.
Today’s weather: sunny, low 32, high 75. Today’s mileage: 21.3. Cumulate mileage: 286.6.
