Day: June 9, 2016

A group of hikers taking a lunch break.

6-08-2016

[Post hike:  The hiker on the far left is Stiff – I don’t know how far he made it, but I knew where he worked in Asheville, NC and told him I would visit him.  Karen and I did so the November after the hike.  It was great seeing him.  Sitting up is Aaron, who is from Seattle and made it through Oregon before having to go back home.  In the Red is Tule, who I left in Wrightwood and he leapfrogged me when I had to leave the trail in Portland for the wedding.  We kept in touch until the end, when he finished a few days before me and we missed each other by only a few hours in Mazama, WA.  I met the three of them in Warner Springs and they were there when I was christened as Dirty Gil.  Tule is the reason the name stuck.  Robin is on the right – I chased him from Wrightwood to the Sierra, where I lost track of him as he probably assumed a trail name after that.  I was within two hours of catching him at Hiker Heaven and a day away at Kennedy Meadows.  I have no idea if he finished or not and have no contact info for him.]

Most of the day today we have been walking a canyon along the same river.  Much of the time we have been high above it, but several times we went right down to it.  And when one spot opened up to a sandy beach, it was too much to resist.  I think I got there about 11 am and others kept filing in.

I left at 3, trying to get to the next interesting spot, hot springs, by 6 PM.  I didn’t get there til 7 and it was quite crowded.  The canyon provides very few places for camping, so it was either go a short day or a long one, and I chose long.

Where we stopped for lunch, it was too shallow to swim, but I did go splash around.

Several miles later I did find a good swimming spot, but could not afford the time to do so.  The same with hot springs.  There’s an actual hot springs that spills into a rock hot tub then into the river.  There were at least fifty people there all camping out, even though camping is not allowed.  It is also clothing optional, but none of the bathers opted for clothing.  Again, no time to go swimming.  Also, no time for pictures.

This stream goes on for miles and miles. There is water, but it is very far down and very hard to get to.

The rest of the day was hiking along the river and crossing back and forth several times.  The park service has installed several high and sturdy bridges across the canyon.  Makes for good views, that’s for sure.

One of the many bridges across the canyons.

We pushed on another few miles and I stopped to camp on an old abandoned trail and the others went on another mile looking for a better place.

This section of trail leaving Big Bear looks a lot like Pennsylvania.

6-07-2016

A turnaround day, indeed.  We got a very late start, waiting for a shuttle that never happened, then going to the outfitter to buy things they didn’t have, then a late breakfast.  This is one of the reasons it’s easier to hike solo, your least common denominator is just you, not two other people.  We were with another hiker that we had met earlier, and it was apparent that he was in no rush to leave town.

Breakfast finished, we went across the street and waited for the bus that would take us to the other side of town closer to the trail, but then we would have to hitch the last 4 miles to the trail.  The road is narrow and not recommended to walk.

We only had our thumbs out ten minutes before we got a ride to the trail head and finally set off at 12:30.  Late, indeed.

As we were exiting town, the beautiful ponderosa pines gave way to more beach like scrubby trees.  There were small amounts of shade on the trail and it was not terribly hot.  Each mile we hiked improved the situation.  We were climbing the ridge behind Big Bear Lake and the ponderosa pines returned.

Excellent views of Big Bear Lake as the trail climbed and the trees got taller and provided ample shade.

The bulk of the hiking was in pine trees and fairly cool.  I stopped at a small stream that was not flowing, but had pools to gather water.  It was cool and tasty.  I cooked a lunch and set off again at five after the one hour break.  I wanted to head to the next official camp area just before the next water source.  It was an area that had been burned, so all the ponderosa were just sticks.  Darkness started to fall so I switched on the headlamp and kept walking.  I was only a mile or two away.  I could see two headlights camping as I approached the valley floor.  When I got to the campsite I realized the other hikers were camping at the next spring a half mile away.  I decided to camp at the designated spot because it had wood chips all over the place which looked comfy.

This once was a beautiful forest, but now it is black twigs and will be this way for decades.

I quickly set up the tent and set out about eating then made some quick repairs to my shoes.  As we were leaving the hostel this morning, I found a whole tube of shoe goo in the hiker box.  I did not have time to fix them then, but fixed three of the major holes after I ate.  If the weather and shade hold tomorrow, I might actually be able to hike all day long.  But if it gets hot again, it means lots of night hiking is in store.