May 24th, 2021
Mile Marker: 275
Miles Hiked Today: 19
Planner and I may have had one of our coldest nights yet. Initially it wasn’t too bad but around that 2-3 am mark, I felt myself waking up and having to really strap my sleeping bag around me tight to keep all the warmness in.
At around 5:30 am we got up and rushed packing our bags and ate a quick bar so that we could start moving and warm up our bodies.
We started out hiking fast on the 3 mile downhill and that turned into a kind of “grandma shuffle” and then we started running. 😂 Our packs were light because we had little food and little water since we were heading into town in 10 miles so it just became a run down to warm up.
We both giggled and thought about if we saw a thru hiker they would probably think we were crazy, but hey, we were enjoying ourselves.
We then had nice easy rolling hills to the highway to get into Big Bear Lake.
When we arrived at the road we saw Daddy and another thru hiker that we had briefly met in Warner Springs. His name is Aris. Us four decided to split a shuttle provided by a trail angel named Jessica.
She was an absolute sweetheart! She gave us some background on Big Bear and the lay out so we had a good idea of where we needed to be for the day. Us four decided to get breakfast at a place called Mountain Munchies. The food was phenomenal and I completely forgot to take a picture of anything the entire time. I hope that means I was enjoying my company well. 🙂
It was nice sitting, eating, and getting to know other hikers. We had all started on the 10th and 11th so we knew that we were all averaging about the same pace which was so nice! The two tried to get us to stay in Big Bear for the night but Planner and I had just had a town day and were looking to resupply and head back out until the next town.
We then all went to the grocery store to load up food, I naturally like I always do, bought too much food and now my food bag is outrageous. I like to tell myself it’s better to have too much than too little. So I’ll stick with that!
Planner and I then headed to a nearby Starbucks to claim for a few hours. We made ourselves comfy and started charging our gadgets.
We lounged around calling people and I working on my blog and then around 3 we ended up calling Jessica again for a ride back to the trail head.
She immediately said sure and grabbed us and then took us to a sporting store so I could grab an extra pair of socks until I received my new ones from my parents. When I came out she had picked up another hiker whose name was Conrad and we all rode to the trail head together. She told us story after story about all these thru hikers she had met and their stories. It made me wish I lived close to a trail to be a trail angel for people!
We hopped out and I asked her for a quick picture and then we headed 9 more miles to our camp spot.
When we arrived we were stunned to spot Gator. She was a girl I briefly mentioned on the first few days. We had both thought the other was way ahead of the other but this whole time we had been relatively close to each other!
The trail really does work in crazy crazy ways. We ended the night camping next to 6 other thru hikers and it felt nice when we all semi sat together eating our dinners. It was a little bit more like AT life. We also asked Gator what her thoughts were about the AT and PCT and she had a similar reaction as us. It was very hard, so far, to get into any kind of groove. It seemed like one thing after the other.
It feels nice to have a more social day and I’m hoping the further we go the more we start to align with people and the distances they are going.
Solid resupply day and solid camp spot with water, no wind, and fellow hikers! Hoping for some good sleep!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 