6/4/2023
Section: Mile post 218.5 to 232.9
Distance: 14.37 Miles
Moving Time: 07:16 hrs
Elevation Gain: 4,672 ft
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Today’s route is an odd one. The trail gets hemmed in by a large east-west running ridge too steep to go straight over so it deviates west and circumnavigates the head wall in order to come back around east on its back side. It’s funny looking at it on a map after several stages of moving in a due northerly direction as the trail suddenly juts west only to jut east again several miles later. Today was also another big climbing day which my itinerary had accounted for by dropping the mileage into the mid-teens.
Amanda and i woke at 3 am after a good nights rest. We had passed out around 8 the night before only to be awoken around 9:30 by Tit Punch and the Ride Brides marching past our tent with headlamps. We rose, had a cold breakfast (finished off that date bar finally) and got underway.
We climbed in the dark continuing to follow on either side of Mission Creek as it ramped towards its source in the mountains. The way turned from north to nortwest as we wound through the low shrubs of the desert. Suddenly Amanda stopped and stepped off the trail. We had heard of a bear in the area but as I looked down the trail I saw what appeared to be some sort of desert cat looking back at us - need to look that up when we have service in Big Bear. We continued on, passing some tents and people slowly waking up and the trail turned true west as it continued to climb.
The path made its way up onto the sides of the river valley, aided by a number of switchbacks, and then began following contour lines rising along the lower flanks of a large ridge, climbing ever higher. The desert look began to give away to more of an open oak forest feel before the pines started to appear. The sun came up and began to light the sky as Amanda and I continued to wind up towards Mission Spring, the source of our familiar creek.
Eventually, we reached the spring which was located near a very nice horse camp. This was the last water for 16 miles so we filled our 3-liter bladders full and added a liter in each of our bottles. It was here that a truly unfortunate event happened. As I stated in another post, some of the equipment we are using is very old - not many items but some. One of these items is a water filter that my dad and I got for one of our first ever backpacking trips in Rainer National Park when i was 14. That makes this filter about 18 years old and it has served without issue through probably 8 or 9 filters and 100’s of gallons pumped. It’s so old that it was actually built by Pur before Pur sold the design to Katadyn but since Katadyn kept the filter cartridges the same, i kept using it. Anyway - the plunger housing actually sprung a leak in its casing today and i think the pump, which has filtered water on every continent save Antarctica, is finally toast. I will have to build a shrine for it when this is all said and done. Add this to the list of ran-till-failed items on this trip, along with Amanda’s 7 year-old Garmin Fenix 5s and two very old platypus water bladders.
After a delectably long break we continued on, the trail turning north and continuing to climb now through tall, beautiful pine trees. After a short distance and 2 road crossings the trail turned east again. Here, we were passed by Jai (Tit Punch himself) who said the girls were behind him but moving slow today before conntinuing on. As we continued east we ran into a gentleman from New Hamsire who, in his retirement, was just doing all the long trails in America section by section. We continued east, heading for the Old Big Bear Elementary school, now a cabin for rental through the US Forest Service. As we closed in on a mile, 3 mountain bikers passed us going the other way. “I didn’t think they were supposed to be on the trail” i said to Amanda. Another 15 minutes brought us to the cabin, just as Martin from Idyllwild appeard behind us. We dropped our packs in the shade and went to check it out.
The cabin gave of some serious creeper vibes. Almost every square inch had been engraved with something and there were some creepy catipillar figurines on the mantelpiece. Jai was inside resting his feet. I headed back out hoping to offload some trash in a proper receptical but no luck was to be had on that front. Amanda and I sat in the shade for about an hour eating and napping. The rest of the Ride Brides showed up as well as a number of single male hikers whom we had not met.
At 2:30 we got our things and continued up the trail. Several long switchbacks led us to the top of a ridge where one of the few marked campsites in this section of the trail were located. We set up camp in the shade of 3 large pine trees and read and relaxed throughout the afternoon before calling it a day. Tomorrow is Big Bear and I’m making myself some s’mores there!!!
