Wrightwood – Big Bear Lake – Day 147 – Sat Nov 18th

Day 147 Sat Nov 18th
Hwy 173 – Super 8 – Hesperia – Holcombe Crossing Camp
2340.9 – 2361.1
Approx. 3750 ft ascent 1660 ft descent
20.2 Miles

On waking up we looked out the window to find it hadn’t rained at least in town.
The forecast we had followed was based on mountain weather. Where it looked like
between here and Big Bear Lake there was a 60- 70% chance of rain. And tomorrow it suggested wind speeds up to 50 miles / hour.

We are now climbing up towards Big Bear Lake where the elevation goes from 3,000 to 8,000 ft.

Obviously 50 miles an hour winds at elevation will not be good so we’ll need to keep an eye on how this pans out.

In the next 6 miles is a series of hot springs. We figured if the rain turns bad we can always just sit in the hot spring and wait it out.

Alan picked us up from the motel around 07:15 and took us back to trail.
It was an entertaining drive back and Alan helped get us up to date with American politics and Donald Trump.
His thoughts were that Trump would soon enough be back in power and that he wouldn’t be surprised if Trumpy was dealt a similar fait to that of JFK.
He also gave us a good insight into how things have changed in America over the years which was fascinating.

Alan is a super nice man and we both really appreciated his help in getting us to and from the trail.

This section has been a strange one where we have spent more time in Motels than on trail. And we still have a couple of days to go to Big Bear.

Within a short time we arrived a Deep Creek which involved a water crossing.
We spent some time looking for a crossing, but in the end there was no dry crossing to be had.
So instead we took off our socks and insoles out and waded through the cold water in our old trail runners.

Fortunately we also had our brand spanking new ones to switch into, which we had been saving until after the bad weather.
This crossing forced our hand and it felt great slipping into new shoes. You could really notice the increased cushion, as the old ones had done over 500 miles.
As we hike up through the canyon towards the hot springs the creek below rages.

Sadly people have taken to adding graffiti tags to some of the rocks either side of the trail. Most of it isn’t even any good and it’s sad to see.

Over the last few days we’ve been starting to see more maple trees and this canyon seems full of their orange autumnal colours.
Their leaves getting kicked up in the air and dancing around in the blue sky like small orange birds.

We passed the hot springs and dropped in to check them out for a while.
There appears to be a number of thermally fed pools occupied by half naked people. We choose to give this human soup a wide berth and figure this experience would be much better if there was no one else here.

Smiles had also told us that some drunk guy had been there for the last 6 days, which also put us off staying.

Starting from today we have 48 miles to cover to get us to Big Bear, a lot of which is uphill.
Our plan today has been to hike for 6 miles then break and have a snack.
Breaking the day up into 6 mile chunks makes it much more manageable and ensures that you force yourself to have a rest by taking off your heavy pack.
We plan to try and cover 25 miles today. Although when I planned the route this morning it showed over 5,000 feet of elevation gain which is a lot to do in 1 day.
If we can do it then tomorrow we only have to cover 23 miles and we will be back on schedule.

There is a new species of plant either side of the trail that seems to be on the menu with the bears. There is a lot of bear scat all over the trail with lots of half digested berries.
Using the ‘Seek’ app to identify it is shows up as Hollyleaf cherry.

As we walk deeper into the canyon we are starting to see more and more trees.
We feel like we’re in the mountains again!
The main species seem to be oak and pine, but there are plenty of golden orange Maple / Aspen contrasting perfectly against the dark green oaks.

For the last week or so we’ve also been seeing different species of Yerba Santa with more of a waxy looking leaf.

At Deep Creek Bridge we leave the canyon. We start switch backing through more rolling sandy terrain, opposed to contouring around rugged mountains.

We walk through fields of Manzanita, Sage and Buckthorn with angry clouds covering the mountains in the distance.

At one point we thought the trail was taking us right towards these clouds, but then it turned in the opposite direction at the last minute.

Our plan was to try and max 25 miles, but there were other considerations to take into account. Namely finding a decent sheltered and dry camp spot. With the aim of avoiding condensation because the ground is still saturated.

The weather warning for extreme winds this evening also means that we need to avoid sandy exposed higher elevation spots.

We hiked into the night and ended up pitching a Holcomb Crossing Camp.
We pitched our tent next to some large sheltered pine trees on the top of duff vs sand, as we felt this offered the best solution.

The weather forecast for Big Bear suggested it had a high chance of rain. Looking at the angry clouds I think this is likely as we sit inside the comfort of our warm cosy tent with thunder rumbling in the distance.

For dinner tonight we have a new addition to trail kitchen – Mountain house homestyle chicken and rice.
Sarah thought it was disgusting so I got extra helpings.

She’s currently eating a Poptart to try and compensate for the poor meal and to get the taste out of her mouth.

Because we called it slightly short at just over 20 miles today, it means we’ve got bigger day tomorrow of 28 miles. Therefore we need to be up early to give us any chance of getting there in time to get a ride into town.
Sarah reached out to the Big Bear trail angel facebook group, so fingers crossed an angel will come to our rescue and pick us up from the trailhead and take us somewhere warm and dry for the night.