Day 15, Shake It Out

Part 1, The Desert, Day 15

Shake It Out

Miles: 19

PCT Mile: 266

Today was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me. I slept weird again, which I blame on the bright moon, and I woke up at 5 am, indecisive about what my plan was. It was 19 miles to Big Bear where I will take a zero and resupply, but I didn't know if I should go there today or camp near the highway tonight and hitch in tomorrow. I've had no cell service here in the mountains, so getting my blog out has been a chore, and it annoyed me. I was very low on food, water, battery power on all my electronics, morale, and energy, but I have nowhere to go but North, so I hiked at 6:30 am.

The trail was beautiful and the weather ideal, but I couldn't shake my low feeling. I finally had a sliver of cell service so I frantically tried to upload my blog post, and then I lost the signal. I thought I'd deleted the whole blog post and I welcomed the morning with some choice expletives. (I was very happy hours later to find out that the post was fine) I took off down the trail, which became a network of dirt roads for awhile, and got lost a few times, having to check my maps and retrace my steps.

I couldn't find a water pump listed in the water report, then I found a note on he ground someone left:

It seemed confusing and, in an extremely poor decision, I chose to forget the pump and go on with only one liter of water. Decisions like these involving water should not be made emotionally. At this time, I realized that I left my bandana on the trail a few miles back. I needed that. How could I be that stupid? I slumped down the trail another 3 miles until I saw this beautiful bear:

It was pacing back and forth in a tiny cage with nothing but dirt inside and no shelter from the sun. I'd heard about this place, where exotic animals used in movies and Hollywood stunts lived out the rest of their days. The trail went right by this cage, I didn't have the heart to look for any other animals.

It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. It filled me with rage and sadness. The people responsible for this seemed real charming, based on their signs:

I didn't even want to take a picture, but people should know how wrong it is to reduce these majestic creatures to this. I found the company, www.predatorsinaction.com, and I know it won't do anything, but I'm gonna write them an email telling them to go fuck themselves. I left and was hiking mad by this point. It wasn't fun.

All this anger and I was only 5 miles into a 20 mile day. After some time, I turned a corner and saw.....trail magic? 

A cache with water, which I desperately needed, and soda. I needed the calories so I tried an orange soda and it was damn good! The cache was provided by two trail Angels in Big Bear, Papa Smurf and Mountain Mama:

They left there numbers and offered a place to stay, and I'm calling them to stay  at their place, Grizzly Manor, on Friday night. I thought this was pretty cool, especially the water, and I began to cheer up.

I was still hungry from no breakfast and I was deciding what to do. I did have one ramen pack that I was looking forward too, something I had not thought possible on this earth, then I rounded a corner and saw a dumpster and a couch... In the middle of the woods. I opened the dumpster and found.....the JACKPOT!!

It was trail magic at its finest!

There was water, soda, trail food, soaps, chocolate, cookies, fresh carrots, and...holy shit, fresh bananas! I ate 3 bananas while sitting on the plush couch. 

And some of these bad boys.

This trail magic completely changed my attitude, and took care of my breakfast problem. I signed their register and thanked these mysterious helpers and started down the trail with renewed vigor. It's amazing how this kindness helped me out. I started to think that hiking angry wasn't worth my time, and that if I'm lucky enough to be out in this beauty, I should love every second, especially the difficult ones.

After 9 miles it was noon, and I stopped at Arreste Trail Camp to charge my phone with my solar panel. Three older hikers, Doug, Paparazzi, and Señor Whiskers showed up and we sat at the picnic table and talked for about an hour. It was great to talk about hiking and relax with these guys. 

I left, deciding to hike ten miles straight to highway 18 where I could hitch to Big Bear, and I filtered water from this puddle.

Had I known this pretty little spring was only half a mile down the trail I would have gotten water here:

Spring water tastes delicious. My day had turned around by now and with my headphones in I charged down the trail at high speed.

I found more sage brush, my favorite plant on the trail. I crush it and smell it in my hands and it reminds me of home.

I was listening to NWA Straight Outta Compton and was belting out the lyrics loud and was caught by a two horseback riders. I laughed, they didn't. 

It was very hot out and I had a view of the massive desert thousands of feet below to my right, which made me nervous since I knew I'd soon be down in that desert roasting.

Running on empty and hungry and thirsty, I was finally approaching the highway. There were a bunch of posters taped to trees from inns trying to compete for hikers' business.

The last mile, as always, was taking forever and my body was done. My feet felt like stumps, and when I got to the highway, there was very little traffic. I put on a smile and stuck out my thumb.

After about ten minutes, a man drove by me an turned around and came back to get me. His name was Jack, a very kind man who told me I'm hitchhiking wrong, that I need to give cars more space to stop. Noted. Along the 10 mile drive, Jack told me about the town and its history and dropped me at the post office in Big Bear Lake. It was very generous of him to give me a ride and I'm surprised at strangers showing me kindness. The town is big and my feet were so done, so I hobbled to the first inn I saw, the very strange Black Forest Lodge.

The lady inside gave me a hiker discount and said I can check out any time tomorrow. She talked me into a jacuzzi suite for 60 bucks. She said a couple just spent 3 nights of ecstasy there. I know I should have been more worried about this last comment. I know this. But I was too tired to care.

There were SO many food options and I didn't have time to decide so I bought a large pizza from Dominos and laid waste to it in about ten minutes. Back in my room, I looked on the mirror and am both surprised and a bit worried about how much weight I've dropped. I'll work on getting calorie dense food tomorrow when I resupply at Von's. Anybody got any good ideas? I went across the street to this place:

I bought some beers and went back to my room and started that sweet jacuzzi action and watched the NFL Draft on this tiny television. 

This was absolute heaven people, but my stomach is killing me from devouring that pizza so fast. Hiker problems. Tomorrow I zero in Big Bear and do all my chores and then hopefully stay with trail angels. After 5 nights and 100 miles in the wilderness, this feels pretty damn good!