Brad's Adventure

Days 17-20

Miles 212.5 – 266.1

It was fun being within a few hundred meters of a full sized windmill spinning fast. The blades are huge, they sound similar to a distant commercial airplane. One of my favorite things so far about being out here is starting to really appreciate little novelties like that because you’re walking all day.

By the time we got to the whitewater preserve(mi 219), a little oasis tucked away in the canyon we’d be hiking in for the next day and half, it was already in the 90s at 11am. We didn’t have high expectations, this was the middle of the desert. It was incredible. You could feel the temperature drop 10 degrees just walking into the place. There were giant trees everywhere, a wading pool, and a huge shaded picnic area with ponds, a water faucet, and even free charging at the ranger station. It was the morale boost we needed after the hellish day yesterday. There were tons of hikers there. Cheeks, snowman, little boy, Shakira, Spencer, high tide, hot mess, carebear, Cassidy, Cinderella, and Solaris.

We chilled for 4-5 hours, catching up with the day ones, (little boy, cheeks, snowman, Spencer) and sitting in the wading pool. At some point we got some free chips and ceviche from a birthday party that was going on. Around 4:00pm we finally left, knowing we’d only have to deal with the heat for a few hours. I was just starting to overheat when the sun started going down. We’ve been getting pretty good dealing with the heat. In the evening we had our second rattlesnake encounter. We were cranking miles now that the temp was good and I looked down and saw a snake a step ahead. I froze, backed away and then it saw me and rattled. We waited, made noise, stomped the ground, and even tossed a rock and it wouldn’t move at all.   It was very stubborn. We walked around it and 30 min later we saw a search and rescue helicopter circling the area and hovering like it was looking for someone. It stopped and picked someone up. It felt like too much of a coincidence timing wise and we felt terrible we didn’t warn anyone about the sneaky rattler. We watched the rescue for 10-15 min and flipped on the headlamps and continued on.

This next section of the trail, mission creek, suffered a wash out a long time ago and there is no trail for 8ish miles along the creek. There was lots of fear mongering about it and we know 4 different groups/hikers that skipped it so we didn’t know what to expect. The trail just follows the creek so we were both thinking it can’t be that bad. We got to the start of the section around 9 pm and I asked if Seth wanted to keep night-hiking up the trail-less river bed. It was a great time. It reminded me of the father-son campout I used to go to as a kid every year.

After the novelty of walking the river in the dark wore off around 11pm, we found a flat spot and both tried Cowboy camping for the first time. That’s when you don’t set up a tent, and you just set up your pad and sleeping bag outside. Overall this day was the most fun I’d had on the trail.

The following day we trudged through the last 6 miles of the washout, took another shade break, and hurried up the mountain towards big bear lake to try to outrun the heat wave.

The sketchiness of mission creek was so overblown it is unreal. The flood has created 15ft banks on either side of the creek. It was like having bumper lanes at the bowling alley, you couldn’t get lost even if you tried. We ended the day at mission camp, finally back up to 8,000ft with actual shade and reasonable heat.

The following two days were tame compared to the chaos of the last 150 miles. Flat, somewhat shaded, and we were hiking with super light packs, only a day of food left and short water carries. The first day we made it 24 miles, Seth’s new farthest day, and we’re just 3 miles from big bear lake. The group we call the Disney adults (cheeks, snowman, little boy and outlaw) caught up with us and we all hung out and watched the sunset from the ridge.

We woke up early, excited for hot coffee and town food, hiked the three miles left and hitched into big bear lake. We got dropped off at the grizzly diner, which was a magical place. Seriously if you are ever in big bear you have to go to this place. Best pancakes I’ve ever had, and they are also comically big.

Seth had points left over from his job so he booked a hotel room at the holiday inn for cheap and we did chores all afternoon. In the evening we drank some Ole’s (basically better high noons) by the waterfront and called Corey. We then went to Rosa’s, a Mexican restaurant in the tourist trap part of town, and had some surprisingly amazing Mexican food. We ended the night by running into the Disney adults outside a bar and we all went to do karaoke. Seth was reluctant and I’m not sure he’s done it before but I signed us both up and we did “I want it that way”. I think he had fun because back at the hotel we started brainstorming about what songs to sing the next time we do it.