Day 15

PCT mile 239 to 266.1 PCT miles 27.1

Woke to a winter wonderland and freezing temps! (Rick note: writing after the fact it was a winter wonderland. At the time I remember hearing/saying ‘it’s f’ing freezing’ and ‘I can’t feel my fingers’ and so on. Glad we remembered to sleep with the water filters in our bags so they wouldn’t freeze.)

Slept in a bit because we hoped it would warm up outside - nope. Sleeping in for us means 5:15am instead of 5am - apparently old hikers rise earlier than the youngsters. Packed up (well, Rick packed up as Chris jumped around trying to stay warm) and headed to our planned tent site at lower elevation (6800) just outside Big Bear. We passed through a sparkling winter setting, snow glistening and huge Big Cone Doug Fir, Incense Cedar and Western Juniper all with a dusting of snow. Lovely.

Hiking was easy, but cold. About noon, Chris suggested pushing past the campsite and trying to make it to Hwy 10 by 5:00 so we could sleep in the hotel. Snow was increasing as we dropped in elevation. High elevation snow was hard balls that didn’t melt on clothing and packs, but as we dropped down the flakes were larger and wet. Rick was fascinated by weird crystals falling front m trees that looked like sections of flat straight razors. At about 1:30pm we realized we were ‘only’ 12 miles from the Big Bear trailhead. We upped our speed and made good time. We passed our planned tent site about 3:00 with a few tents already pitched in the snow. We ran down the 12 miles in about 3 hrs. Called Michelle (Trail Angel) about a mile out and she was waiting for us at the trailhead when arrived. The Trail Angels we’ve met are amazing people -so generous with their time! Michelle is also picking us up in the morning and dropping us back at returning us to the trailhead. Sweet lady. Staying now at the nicest Best Western we’ve ever seen.