Ten days is a whole lot to cover. Thankfully I have a physical journal to keep track of all that's happened. Life on the trail is a blur. Everyday is similar to the last but completely different. Time starts to get weird and it's difficult to put into words how strange it becomes. If I was able to recall from memory the last ten days, it would feel like I'm recalling ten weeks. I'll try my best to write about this time warp.
Day 19, I left Big Bear with Flash. I have written about him before where I called him Squirrel. But now he has an official trail name which I'll be using. He gets it from an aweful looking old lady silk shirt he wears. Trail names are given but the person who revives the name can decide to keep it or not.
The previous names he had was meat tosser or squirrel. It refers to an incident at Warner Springs. He found a decaying squirrel in the campground. This prompted him to grab a trekking pole, stab the squirrel, and chuck it over the fence. Everyone at hobo town cheered in approval. He also got names which he didn't like. Flash was the one that stuck.
Sorry, I got off topic!
We left Big Bear....
The trail was super easy this day. It was extremely gradual and mostly down hill. We put in around seventeen miles that day. There were three quarters of a dozen people at the campsite and I decided to cowboy camp.
I awoke the next day to a nearly black but green bird walking a top me. Flash said this bird had an odd chirp. No one seemed to care about his observation. I was the last to leave camp when I glanced down and saw the bird. It opened its lips and the sound of 8-bit swords clashing together came out of its mouth. That was the one and only time I heard the sword bird.
Flash did the best job he could do and thinks the bird is called a Shiny Cow Bird. If anyone is a bird person, research into this bird would greatly be appreciated.
Day 20 saw us leaving a forested area and now back to the desert. The climb was moderate. We came to an area with a hot springs. I didn't feel like going in as there we a ton of people and sunset was in a few hours. We heard rumors of a storm so staying long wasn't an option. There were also nudists in the area. Sweet!
There was a trail angel around mile 317 that was handing out root beer floats. That made my day. His name is Coopertone and he's a retired guy having fun. He also moved his location a few days ago to mile 444 or so and did the same thing. Having a snack surprise like that is fantastic. Trail angels enhance the experience.
Anyhow, that day I made it to Silverwood lake.
I had a nice dip and camped a few miles from this location.
After the lake, it was time to make it to everyones' favorite restaurant, McDonalds. This was in El Cajon. There were about thirty hikers already there when I arrived. The restaurant was humid and stinky. Since its along the interstate, most customers are just passing through. The looks of confusion and disgust on some peoples' faces was amusing. I ended up eatting roughly 3000 calories. I felt disgusting immediately after but the next day, it put a spring in my step.
It was time to get back into the mountains and forest. The beginning of the day it was cold, foggy, and windy. I was somewhere around in the 7,000ft range. These was the beginning of the San Gabriel mountains.
I had a quick resupply in Writewood then back on the trail in less than three hours. I camped with a bunch of folks at a place called goose hallow. Being that it's higher elevation, there were clouds aka fog throughout the night. It was also below or near freezing with wind chill. For whatever reason, I decided to cowboy camp. Despite those conditions, I was kept awake by a snoring camper. I forgot to put in my earplugs.
The next day began summiting Baden-Powell; a wonderful 9k+ mountain that overlooks LA, in the fog. The entire day was foggy. I didn't bother taking pictures.
Here are some photos from then until now.
There are far too many details I'm missing. I hope I will have the time later to write about them. Tapping this out on a smartphone isn't fun. But no worries everyone, I'm doing fine. I'm at hiker heaven and will leave for the trail again tomorrow.
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