This post originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read here.

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 22: April 29, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Arrastre Trail Camp – 256.2
End: Caribou Creek Tentsite – 275.0
Miles: 18.8
Ascent: 2192 | Descent: 2550
Sleep: Tent

Today felt like a super short day even though we did over 18 miles. It was easy and we took a lot of breaks, so maybe that’s what made it go by so quickly.

We woke up around 6am and most of the other hikers were already up and moving. It got below freezing again and our water bladders were filled with slushie ice. Thankfully we had slept with our filters and nothing of importance was frozen. It was hard to get moving in the cold, and we were some of the last people to leave the campsite.

Once the sun was truly shining and we were moving, we all warmed up quickly. Hangman, Pinky, Truffles, and I all hiked together for the majority of the morning. We stopped to filter water after the first couple of miles and slowly started catching up to the folks who had left camp before us. All of the hikers were clumped together to get into town, and we hiked faster than most of them.

We made good time to the Highway 18 road crossing and were there by 11am. Just before the highway, we hit some pinecones that were arranged to say “10%”. We’re 10% of the way to Canada! At the trailhead, there was a cooler with cold non alcoholic beer and we sat in the shade enjoy a cold beverage. While we were sitting there, multiple trail angels stopped to offer us rides into town. Our plan was to go into Big Bear the following day and hero in and out in the same day, so we politely turned down the rides.

We ended up sitting by the parking lot for almost 2 hours eating lunch, enjoying cell signal, and planning our next few resupplied. We watched every other hiker we’d seen in the morning get rides into town and it was hard to fight the urge to go into town. Eventually around 1pm we started hiking again, grateful we only had a few more miles to camp.

We all hiked separately for the rest of the day but met up at the Doble Trail Camp to collect water. From there it was only 6ish miles to our campsite for the evening. The rest of the day was uneventful. I climbed a hill and then got to cruise coming down on the other side. The trail in the afternoon took me through pine forests and I enjoyed the extra cushion of walking on pine needles.

I was the first one into camp around 5:15pm. There wasn’t anyone else here when I arrived, but it didn’t take long for the rest of the group to filter in. An older couple hiked in going southbound and one other lone hiker came to the campsite but kept to herself. It feels like we’re basically here alone, which is a sharp contrast to last nights crowded campsite. I figure all the other hikers are already in town.

It’s so early on into the trail, we couldn’t justify spending more money on lodging in town after we just left Idyllwild a few days ago. We will have lots of other town opportunities, and going in and out on the same day still allows us to do all our town chores except showering and laundry. The bright spot is that we are planning a trail zero during this next stretch at the Deep Creek Hot Springs, so that’s something to look forward to! I’m excited to eat TWO meals in town tomorrow and then the feeling of righteous accomplishment when we hike out in the evening.

Day 23: April 30, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Caribou Creek Tentsite – 275.0
End: Caribou Creek Tentsite – 275.0
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Tent

Today was a really weird day. It was an unintentional zero, but we didn’t stay in town or do anything really important/memorable. We woke up around 6am in order to hike out early and get into town with enough time to spend the majority of the day there. It was in the 20s overnight so all of our stuff was iced over and cold. We got moving just after 7:15am and had about a 2.5 mile walk down a dirt road to get into town.

Once we hit pavement, we decided to walk an extra mile to a bus stop that would take us into town. The towns of Big Bear City and Big Bear Lake have a free shuttle service, so our plan was to hop on that. Shortly after arriving at the bus stop, an older fella in a truck pulled over and offered to give us a ride. He dropped us off at Mountain Munchies for breakfast.

What a wonderful breakfast we had! The portions were huge and the service was wonderful. The staff let us charge our battery banks and we stayed there for seven hours gorging ourselves on breakfast food and coffee. I had an omelet, hash browns, and a pancake. Truffles and Pinky for delicious breakfast burritos, and Hangman got bacon and eggs.

Pimento went into town yesterday in order to rest his hurting ankle. He met us at the restaurant and hung out with us all day. After breakfast, we walked next door to Starter Bros Grocery to resupply. For 5 days of food Truffles and I spent $86 which we felt like was really good.

We then headed across the street to the DIY store to get fuel and duct tape. Thankfully everything we needed was centrally located so we didn’t have to worry about the shuttle or getting across town. The shopping center with the DIY store also has a Dollar Tree and another grocery store. We piddled around that area running various individual errands and searching for outlets to charge our electrics.

This is where the day started to go downhill. Since we were planning to go in and out of town in the same day, that meant we had a limited amount of time to charge our battery banks. We had all our town chores done by 1pm and could have gone back on trail and done several more miles, but we were faced with the dilemma of trying to get our battery banks fully charged, a task that takes multiple hours.

We decided to go to the Starbucks in the same shopping center and ended up sitting there for 3-4 hours in order to let our electronics charge. We all started to stress about getting back on trail and debating whether or not we should just stay in town. The general feeling was frustration and stress, two emotions that seldom show up on trail.

When we’re just hiking and sleeping on the tent life is so simplified. Going into town is wonderful until we have to navigate all the decisions and logistics- it gets overwhelming quickly and can ruin the upbeat mood of a town day.

We stayed at the Starbucks until close to 5pm, at which point we decided to grave a quick bite to eat before heading back to trail. We went to Wing Stop where we met Oscar, a super sweet guy working the counter who let us charge our battery banks and even gave us free brownies. He was so interested in our hike and helped to lift my spirits.

Earlier in the day we had ran into Chris, a trail angel in a Sprinter van who offered to take us back to trail. I texted him while we were eating and helped agreed to give us a ride back to the trail head. The town of Big Bear has easily been one of the friendliest towns I’ve been in, we were stopped multiple times to see if we needed a ride anywhere, and so many people encouraged us in passing.

Chris shuttled us back to the trailhead and sent us off with beers. We had a short conversation 2.5 mile walk back to the campsite where we were faced with another choice: do we camp here again or hike a little further. We were all out if water and it was already about 6:30pm, so we decided to just pitch our tents in the same spot as last night.

We expected there to be a bunch of other hikers, but it was just us and Michelin, Stryder, and Pathfinder. Pimento decided to stay in town an extra day with Gooey to try and rest his ankle some more.

Laying in the tent I feel frustrated by the days events. On one hand we didn’t everything we needed to do in town and didn’t spend any extra money on accommodations. On the other hand, we basically took a zero without any of the luxuries like showers and laundry. It feels like our whole group is in a bad mood after today, so I’m hoping tomorrow is better since we’ll actually be hiking.

Day 24: May 1, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Caribou Creek Tentsite – 275.0
End: Holcomb Crossing Camp – 294.0
Miles: 19.0
Ascent: 1400 | Descent: 3410
Sleep: Tent

Today was another fine day on trail. We woke up around 6am and Truffle’s thermometer said it was 27 degrees inside the tent. Thankfully I stayed warm all night but I still didn’t sleep very well. I woke up around 5am as it was starting to get light and the birds were calling. They were loud enough to wake me up! Since it was so cold it took a while for us to thaw out and get moving, but we were on trail around 7:45am.

Truffles wasn’t feeling good and wanted to hike by himself. I started off with Pinky and Hangman but got ahead of them pretty quickly. I leap frogged a bit with Michelin but eventually got ahead of her and Stryder as well. The terrain today was super cruisey and easy to move fast on, so I covered the first 5 miles of the day by 9:30am.

I found a log in the sun to sit at and eat a snack. While I was enjoying the sunshine Pinky and Hangman caught up and we hiked the rest of the day together. The trail wove around a mountain side, it felt like we were just making loop de loops. Turns out there was a road that was a straight shot and that’s what Truffles wound up on.

We all caught up at the Little Bear Springs Camp. We laid out our quilts since they were all wet from condensation the previous night. We stopped right in front of a flowing creek, it was nice to eat lunch by the water. The clouds started to roll in while we were wrapping up, and it started to drizzle just as we were leaving.

Truffles hiked ahead but Hangman, Pinky, and I decided to take an ATV road that paralleled the trail. It was wide open and spacious so we all three could walk and talk easily. Pinky and I even pulled out our umbrellas to test out in the rain, they were wonderful! We walked and talked which helped passed the time.

Once we reconnected back into the trail, we only had less than 2 miles to our campsite. We walked along Holcomb Creek the whole time and passed lots of really nice campsites. I was happy to finally arrive at our site and see Truffles with the tent already set up.

We are the only ones here at this very spacious campsite. There’s access to the creek where there’s a large pool you could submerge in. We’re surrounded by pine trees and the entire site has a blanket of pine needles. I waded in the creek to to my knees to wash some of the dirt and dust off my legs. Once Pinky and Hangman arrived we all gathered around to eat dinner together before retiring to the tents. I think we’re all worn out from a long day. Excited for the hot springs tomorrow!