So after a relaxing Monday in Big Bear it was time to get out on the trail again on Tuesday morning. Big Bear Hostel had said they would give me a ride back to the PCT at 8:30 in the morning and so I walked from the International Hostel to the Big Bear Hostel around 7:30. It was only .7 miles from one to the other but I did not want to be late. Of course I was early and they were late :). Got a ride with 3 others up to the PCT. 1 guy was a loner even by my standards and he did not say a word and got out of the car and was on the trail before the rest of us were had hardly opened our doors. The other two were a couple, Allison and Alex, and this is the couple I mentioned earlier that seemed to be in lockstep with each other. Either they had exactly the same pace at all times or Alex was just very good at going at Allison’s pace because I never saw them except that Allison was leading and Alex was a step or two behind. For the most part the PCT trail is never wide enough to walk side by side. They were a nice couple and in no hurry and because of that I saw them quite a bit for two days as we would pass each other while the other was on a break. It was fun watching and listening to them work out when they were going to stop, what they were going to eat, how much water they were going to need.

So on the ride the PCT the driver pointed to the mountains across Big Bear Lake and told us that is where you will be walking. The trail goes on the other side of those mountains mostly but comes back to this side once and when it does you will be able to see the Big Bear marina and actually see the Big Bear Hostel. I thought to myself this would probably take about an hour to happen. It took way longer and I was shocked that Big Bear Lake was still visible the next morning. Other than Allison and Alex I did not see any hikers today and I thought that rather odd as generally a number of people will catch and pass me. Must have been some lull in the number of hikers starting the trail.

Since I started on Tuesday rather than Monday, I knew I was not going to make it to my next destination which was Wrightwood and so Lenora and I worked out that she would pick me up on Sunday early sometime at the McDonald’s on I15 in Cajon pass. So I have been walking since April 6 and on May 2 I should reach Cajon pass and I15 which will take Lenora about 2 hours to drive to. I figured I could make that distance pretty easy as it was only 80 miles and I had 5 days to hike it. So I stopped after 12 miles on the first day and set up camp. I’m not sure when it hit me but some time that night I realized that 5 times 12 is NOT 80!!! I think I did that bit of arithmetic while I was gasping for air going up some mountain. So now I had some catching up to do. During that night I decided to come up with an actual routine. I have always been a morning person and yet I was getting up on the trail later than usual and getting a late start. I have so much more energy in the morning than the afternoon and if I was going to make more miles it was clear I had to hike more hours. Faster was just not happening. So the routine for the rest of the week and probably the rest of my hike was going to be this:

4:30 wake up
5:00 really wake up
5:45 have a little bit to eat. Small piece of summer sausage generally
6:00 start hiking
9:00 to 10:00 stop and have a big piece of summer sausage and some hot chocolate (so at least a 20 minute rest)
1:00 stop to have lunch. Generally a package of smoked Salmon
3:00 stop for some sort of snack.
5:00 start looking for a camping spot. Set up tent and fix evening meal. A hot meal and eat a lot.