Day 27: Highway 18 - Little Bear Springs trail camp (mi 266-285)

Big Bear Lake with Mt. Gorgonio in the background. 

"Good mileage, minimal crying. Not much climbing, predominately descending."

These were my quick notes to jog the brain, as we left later, ate a long lunch, did 20 miles, and didn't get into camp until around 9 PM. 

The late start is a bit of a misnomer, though. We had to put our bounce box in the mail, so the earliest we could leave town was after 8 AM. A Trail Angel/hostel 'employee' gave us, along with Tortuga and Team Tingo, a ride up to the Highway 18 trail junction. Stubborn and non-wasteful, Smiles and I brought our leftover breakfasts, hamburger, and beer with us. I picked the biscuit and gravy, and old pancakes to work on while the much-wiser Smiles ate the cold hamburger. I quickly recalled that leftover pancakes are absolutely terrible, and satisfied myself with the far superior biscuit & gravy. Once I finished, I had something of a mess on my hands, as the pancakes were enclosed in a styrofoam container and there was no trash bin nearby. Thankfully, a hiker named Happy Hour asked whether he could take it off my hands, since he was headed into town. I gratefully obliged. Happy Hour was a nice dude from CO, and though our interaction was brief, we hoped we would run into him again. 

Smiles packs in important cargo: 1 L of red wine. 

We started hiking in the high desert just before noon. It was hot, and Smiles was not entirely keen on the climb out of the valley. We took a few breaks, and on one such break, Rocky, T-rex, and Chickchaw passed us. Smiles met up with them the night before and reunited with her high school amigo (Rocky) and his crew from Portland, OR. We doctored some feet, deployed our sun-brellas, and continued the climb. Soon enough (or not soon enough, depending on whom you asked) the climb leveled out and we arrived back at a creek for lunch, where we sat with Rocky, T-rex and Chickchaw for a spell. Ten miles in and at 3 o'clock, we weren't terribly ambitious about our afternoon prospects.

Smiles navigates trail obstructions with ease.

We decided to continue our lassiez faire approach, climbed up to the rim trail on the north side of Big Bear Lake, then started dropping down towards I-15 at Cajon Pass (still 40+ miles away). We jammed down through the strong conifers and met a stark contrast when we strode right into a large fire scar. However, considering we only had about 30 minutes of daylight left, the temperature was not an issue in the exposed landscape. We heard T-rex and Chickchaw hooting and hollering off in the distance, as there was nothing to stop the sound, and were left with mere speculation as to the source of the alarm. A tall, lanky fellow named Track Meet came up behind us and greeted us by saying "there's no way I can come up behind you without scaring the pants off of you at this hour," which was semi accurate. He strode past me at a 2:1 stride ratio, which put him at a 4:1 Smiles stride ratio. 

The Little Bear Springs trail camp was within hailing distance of Holcomb Creek and was completely full by the time we got there. The hillsides seemed to have a decent supply of common poor-wills, gauging by the numerous calls throughout the evening. Rocky and T-rex set up their cowboy camp (i.e., sleeping out/no tent) in the horse corral, and Smiles and I claimed the only level ground left right next to them without any bother. I filled up on trail mix peanut butter from my stupid ' veggie fresh' rubbermaid, which had a hole to allow vegetables to breathe and consequently peanut oil to seep on the contents of my food bag, since it was late and we didn't feel like cooking dinner. The exposed landscape hurried us off to bed early in hopes of an early departure on the morrow. (Is anybody sensing a theme here?)