Day 19

I've never been as excited as I was today to hike 14 continuous miles of incline! I've wanted to be out of the excessive heat of the desert for a few days now and nearly 5000' of elevation gain would do the trick. The heat even forced me to take nearly a day just to recuperate and pushed back my arrival to Big Bear by a day. Of course this says nothing of the fact that I'm stretching my food so that I don't need to resupply earlier. So anyway, back to the climb. I started at about 5:15 this morning at about 3000' and followed a stream (a rarity in SoCal!) with lots of shade for much of the morning. The climb was gradual at first but began steepening the higher we got (I was climbing with a couple and their dog). We arrived at Mission Creek Trail Camp in the early afternoon and just relaxed for a while. I decided then to continue on another six miles to Coon Creek where there was a campground of sorts. It's a group campground so I just asked the folks using it if I could find a flat spot somewhere and post up. They said sure and that's where I'm typing this from with fingers that are so cold it is difficult to move them. I guess I should be careful what I wish for!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to make it approximately 22 miles to another camp on the outskirts of Big Bear. The following day then I'd hike about another 10 and hitch into town to do laundry and resupply.