Day 24: (05/11): to 293.8 :: 18.8 miles

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Last night as we were arriving to camp, we noticed from afar that another tent was already there. We prefer not to camp next to others if we can avoid it, so we detoured up the creek and found a nice flat spot in a pine forest. This morning we woke up early, 5:45, and it was already totally light out. We were walking by 6:30 and passed the tent with its occupants still inside, just as they had been last evening by 7. A little later in the morning while we are stopped for breakfast, they catch up to us and go past, without much of a greeting. It is a younger couple, about our age. Shortly after we get going again, we pass them standing in the middle of the trail trying to get cell reception where there is a view of Big Bear Lake. A game of leap frog ensued, I hate that! 


Later in the afternoon we are ahead of them still and decide to take a break. We go off the trail As we generally do, and hope they will go past and we can be rid of them. We tend to assume everyone is faster than us and just let them go and never see them again. Instead what happens is we see them approach and take a break right in the trail just behind us, we sit quietly and then the guy comes within about 50 feet of us and begins digging and cathole and pooping! He were in plain sight, but somehow he doesn’t see us! We get up and ran away and probably give him and the girl a big scare when they see us! When we take our final afternoon break we see them go past again, we are once again off the trail and they probably don’t see us. Once we get going again, we catch up to them, again taking a break right in the trail. Why do people do that?? Just as we get to where they are, they jump up and cut us off, so we are forced to another break to let them get a little further away. 


They ultimately end up at the campsite we had been aiming for, and they were not particularly friendly to us, so we hike on a further 1/2 mile to the next one, making it a whopping 18.8 miles! That’s our longest day of hiking ever! We were blessed with ideal conditions! It was sunny, but we never overheated. We had access to enough water through out the day and we got to eat enough food. We mostly traveled in a straight line down a river valley and enjoyed only very gentle elevation changes. What a joy! We didn’t even have to hike til dark! We were finished by 6 and got to enjoy the warm evening outside of our tents. It’s really nice when it’s warm enough that we don’t have to retreat immediately into the tent. 


The scenery today was pretty, but nothing spectacular. Much of the walk was through a forest fire burn zone from a few years ago, so there wasn’t much shade, but lots of bushes and flowering plants. We also got to enjoy the beautiful pink and green shades of young leaves on the oak trees. They are the first leaves we’ve seen so far on the deciduous black oaks, spring is coming to the high mountains! We are now creekside, in the bottom of the valley we walked down all day, Holcomb Creek. The valley continues tomorrow into the Deep Creek drainage, and we will have lots of access to water for drinking and even swimming!


Our bags felt very heavy today. We both had shoulder and hip pain, which we did not experience on any of our previous legs. I am definitely carrying too many luxury foods!! I got everything from my handheld bag into the backpack this morning, but still have a cucumber, a jicama, 2 avocados, a lime, half a lemon and many oranges!  Usually I carry all the food and Jeff carries the water. But when I have too much, such as on longer stretches between resupplies like this one, Jeff helps. We try to make it equal and slowly as the food load decreases, more of it goes to my bag. It will be nice by the end of the day tomorrow when we have finished most produce! We are rather exhausted and will be asleep before 9 tonight!



Red lentil pancakes that I packed out already cooked from home with Saba bananas and peanut butter on top. Breakfast of royalty!

A fine view of Big Bear Lake 

Holcomb Creek Valley 

Young oak leaves 

Young oak tree and the type of vegetation we hiked through 

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