PCT 12 - Big Bear / Holcomb Creek

Daily miles 26
Total miles 292

After a couple days off in Big Bear, we are back out on the trail. Saturday was spent taking care of errands and business stuff and a couple phone calls, and Sunday was more relaxing with more phone calls and a nap with some Frasier watching.

We were able to stay at the hostel in Big Bear on Saturday and Sunday evening, which worked out well as it is close to the post office and some dining options. We had four in our small room on Saturday, and on Sunday Lid and Shane headed back to the trail so we had our room to ourselves Sunday night.

We have had a great time hiking with Lid, whom we have walked with for the entire trail so far. We were pretty bummed that he headed out on Sunday, but we understand that everyone has a different schedule to keep. We hope to see him again.

Sunday night, Mountain Man, Proton, Gazelle and XC arrived at the hostel. It was great to see them, and we look forward to hiking more with that group in the future days.

This morning we got the first shuttle from the hostel to the trail and we’re walking at 7:45. Today was probably the best weather we have hiked in on the PCT thus far…nice and cool without being cold. The sun was out for the whole day as well. Really quite a lovely day. The great temperature made the miles come pretty easy and we were able to do our biggest mileage day of the trip thus far, despite the late start out of town. Most of the day was spent walking in and out of shade from the big conifers on the mountain. The trail today had feeling reminiscent of both the Tahoe Rim Trail as well as the northern section of the Arizona Trail.

We passed a lot of hikers today, probably 15 new people or more. We also caught up to a few folks that had passed us while we were zeroing in Big Bear.

There were some new flowers on the trail today, nice little purple flowers with five leaves that grow together in clumps in the sand. Towards the end of the day we saw a couple deer as well. No snakes through this section – though Beardoh remembers seeing a couple in 2012 during this section.

Tonight we are camped by Holcomb Creek. We found a couple hammock spots about 100 feet from the water. We are never too amped to sleep in a Canyon near water, because of the Katabatic effect (damp air laying in the river Canyon = more condensation on on out hammocks and sleeping bags in the am) but we were ready to stop here and there is a slight breeze.