Day 18-19--Double Zero in Big Bear City

Written Saturday, 8 May 2021

Okay, I goofed up. I assumed that getting around Big Bear would be easy, so when I booked my AirBnB I didn't pay much attention to the location, thinking I would take Uber anywhere I needed to go.

Oops.

There is virtually no Uber, Lyft, taxi service or flexible public transportation in and around Big Bear City (where I am staying) and Big Bear Lake (where most restaurants, outfitters, and grocery stores are). This means I have to walk miles to accomplish the most mundane tasks. Big Bear City does not even have sidewalks. We might as well be in the old west, people!

Luckily, there is a pizza place and a beer/wine/liquor store right around the corner from my cottage so I don't starve the first night, although I did accidentally eat an entire pizza, washed down with a delicious local cider. It. Was. An. Accident.

I get up early, fiddle a little with this blog a little, and head out foraging for breakfast. Luckily, I don't have to forage long, Turns out there's a breakfast place right around the corner. I order all the food.

By the time I finish demolishing my eggs, bacon, fruit, and waffles with pretty much a full pot of coffee, Peanut Butter and Jack wander in. They just got off the hill this morning and got a room at the Motel 6. They sit down and order while I drink coffee, We have a chance to discuss our backgrounds and impressions of the Trail do far before we split.

I head back around the corner to my cottage, fire up the Uber app, and there's a actually a ride available! I immediately book it, and 20 minutes later, I am whizzing 5 miles across town to resupply.

My driver drops me at a sporting goods store where I pick up about half the items I need, and then I start a 2-mile walk, back in the direction I came to a grocery store for the rest.

Along the way, I pass near a Walgreens drug store and decide to check in to see if there's any possibility of getting my first COVID vaccine, which I didn't become eligible for until the day I flew to San Diego to start the PCT.

After standing in a long, slow line at the pharmacy, I am able to ask the pharmacist who tells me, "We really don't take walk-ins," but another pharmacist working nearby tells him, "We have 5 extra doses of Johnson & Johnson, so if he wants that, we can go ahead and do it.'

I'm definitely okay with that, and a half hour later I walk out vaccinated. Even better, I don't have to worry about getting a second dose since J&J is a one-shot deal.

I head to the grocery store, finish my resupply and, unable to raise anyone via Uber or Lyft, I schlep 3 miles back to the cottage.

Unfortunately, White Rabbit and Good Things are at the other end of town so, unless we're willing to walk miles for dinner together, that's probably a no-go.

Peanut Butter and Jack, who are nearby, come over. We order pizza and solve the problems of the world over food and beers.

Everybody else is heading back to the Trail today (Saturday), but I'm not leaving until tomorrow. I probably could have and should have, but I'm trying to resynch with The Ambassadors, who are a little behind me. It felt a little strange being in town without them.

Plus I'm lazy. Not for nothing is this blog called "A Procrastinator's Journey."

This lazy day in town reminds me of the time I spent hiking with Elf and Disciple (two brothers, originally from northeastern Pennsylvania) during 2019 when I was out to finish the AT hike I started in 2017.

I met Disciple on Smarts Mountain NH on July 4, 2019, where we watched fireworks displays going off all over western NH and eastern VT. Disciple and I don't hike the same speed but we did tend to cover about the same distance each day, so we ended up seeing a lot of each other.

Somewhere around the NH-Maine border, Disciple was joined by his brother, Elf, and their friend, Chief, who got his trail name because he was, at one time, the honest-to-goodness police chief of their town in Pennsylvania.

Chief--who had already finished the AT--was along primarily for support. He would drop Elf and Disciple off at a trailhead evey day and pick them up in the evening, take them to dinner, get them to a motel for the night, and repeat the next day--real gentlemen's hiking.

I have no idea why I was lucky enough to be included in this (probably my good looks and lovable personality), but I'm sure thankful I was. It certainly made one of the toughest parts of the AT much easier.

More important, I have never laughed so hard as I have listening to these brothers and siblings telling stories about the people they grew up with and played sports with back at home. I'd tell you Disciples story about the foam collar on the beer at one of their local bars, but I couldn't do it justice. You'll have to ask him about it.

Anyway, to be lucky enough to hang out with those three guys for a couple of weeks between the NH-Maine border and the beginning of the 100-Mile Wilderness is one of my best hiking experiences.

Thank you, Disciple, Elf, and Chief! In

BL: Hiking is better with friends.

Night, all. I'm headed back to the Trail in the morning.

Miles hiked this post: Blutarski Total Miles Hiked: 266.1

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