Monday May 10 – Carrots and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
The moring was cold and it was hard to leave the warmth of the down sleeping quilt. We are using one Western Moutaineering semi-rectangular sleeping bag, the “Aspen” as a quilt, zipped together with a lightweight “coupler” which holds the pads in place and keeps the sides from getting drafy. So far this arrangement has kept us warm at night, including this first test at above 8,000 feet.
After a quick, no cook breakfast, we were on the trail a little after 6:30am. Its twenty miles to highway 18 from where we can hitch a ride into Big Bear City, and we want to make it by mid afternoon. A long sleeve shirt over top of the regular hiking shirt was needed for the first couple hours due to the cold. Hard to image that just yesterday we were searching for shade and heat relief by 9am.
Mostly a rolling ridge walk with lots of contours and a general downhill trend. Thought about the Monday Hikers today as we were trodding along on our own Monday hike, rolling along the mountain ridges around Big Bear.
Passing close to some areas that have been developed in the last ten years we encountered some kind of exotic animal compound, with Bengal Tigers and Gizzley Bears, and several layers of fencing to keep the hikers out. Carrots, and Tigers and Bears, OH MY………
The most remarkable thing about today’s hike was the fact that we saw no other hikers on the trail. We camped the night before alone, walked alone and encountered no one on the trail.
We arrived in Big Bear City, right on schedule this afternoon. Hitched a ride in from the top of the pass of highway 18. It was so windy that the Carrot brought out her fleece. The Carot’s trail appetite has kicked in. She was mumbling about cheese burger and pizza fantasies all day. And in town we polished off monster sized burritos as a very late lunch, going out to a chinese food dinner with Charlie, his friend Trish and One Braid, less than three hours later…
Once we arrived in town, there were many hikers around and about. We are staying at the motel 6 and have run into Billy Goat, Adam, and Southpaw among others.
