4.11.2018 day 18

We tried really hard to get on the trail to beat the heat today. To our advantage though, the region we are in had slightly cooler temps than the southwest region around us. We still managed to be hiking by 7am. I knew today would be a tough day for me. It turned out to be a tough day for everyone tho. We climbed out of mile 226 and made it to camp this afternoon around 5pm at mile 239. The entire day we hiked uphill, starting at 3200ft to end at 7800ft. The trail was just brutal. Very defeating.

We took at least 3 breaks today. Just taking your shoes and socks off for 20 minutes does wonders for your feet. My legs and feet are finally feeling like they are gaining strength. Everything is still sore and it’s always hard to get going once you stop. BUT the strength is shining through. I’ll get there I can feel it.***just a few photos of some of our obstacles.

We have roughly 26 miles to go until we are near Big Bear. Our next chance for water is 16 miles so tomorrow we hope to crank out a 20 mile day. That will leave us with 6 miles until we can get a hitch into Big Bear Lake, where my resupply box should be waiting at the hostel. We plan to check that place out and possibly stay the night in town somewhere so we can cleanup again.

It’s weird that we haven’t seen many hikers in this stretch. Currently there’s 10 hikers, including us 3, at this campsite. We never saw Squish today, so he must have got his miles in early. But there is a couple (Sunny & Pusher) with their dog (Deeds) who I saw at least a week ago. They are nice, this is their second attempt of the trail.

It was nice to finish hiking at an earlier time today. We had family dinner again and now it’s 730pm and we are hunkered down in our tents. It’s windy and cold here at Mission Creek Campsite. Here’s to another night of hoping that my tent doesn’t blow over.

Oh yeah, even tho we camped right by the creek last night and the frogs were croaking all night, I finally saw one today after our second break. I almost stepped on him. Cute little thing. You can barely see him in this photo.