We woke up this morning in our Air Bnb and had a great relaxing morning. We drank coffee and showed the international hikers Talladega Nights as an ‘accurate representation of American culture’. We spent the rest of the morning packing and securi our gear.

Tibers dad ended up being in the area and brought us all a home cooked lunch in Big Bear. Bulgogi and other Korean foods. It was such a nice meal to have and gave us opportunities to put some greens in our bodies. We wrapped up our remaining chores at the store after and headed to a pizza joint for some beer and pies.

After the slow day, we headed back out on trail for a short two mile hike to a campsite with water. We got to enjoy a nice campfire and some great resupply meals.

Happy Trails…

We woke up this morning pretty late for our standards and didn’t get moving until around 8AM. It was nice to have a slow start but we still planned on hiking 24 miles. We new it was fairly flat with no crazy elevation gain or loss.

It was a fairly uneventful day today. The terrain shifted subtly from pine trees to a more desert shrub biome as we slowly walked down hill towards the main water source in the area - Holcomb Creek. Spoons and I walked by Big Bear Lake and I’d be lying if didn’t admit that part of me would have enjoyed a detour to go for a swim but we kept walking. We didn’t break for lunch until around 4PM but passed by a couple cowboys riding through. We noticed their tent set up and given their extra help for hauling things, they seemed to have a pretty nice set up. Pots, pans, the works.

We got to camp around 7:30 which is situated right by Holcomb Creek. It didn’t take but 30 seconds to notice the incredible amount of mosquitoes that swarmed us immediately. I quickly rinsed off my feet in the creek, heated up some water for dinner, and crawled in my tent. We all had dinner in our own tents and chatted some distance away from each other. Aside from about 3 other evenings, we’ve mostly cowboy camped. Sleeping in a tent every now and then definitely feels nice. I was lucky enough to get inside the tent without letting a mosquito in.

Tomorrow, we’ll get to bath in the hot springs for some R&R, yet our goal is still 20+ miles. We’re hoping to reach the McDonalds that sits just .1 miles off the trail in about two days. Wish us luck.

Happy trails…