Chap. 19 – Big Bear and Burgers

Tomorrow

Boostie and I left camp very early this morning, before everyone except Marathon. Marathon is usually the first to leave. He likes to take it easy in the morning and spend some time alone before we catch up. You also have a lot less to pack in the morning – its base weight is just 4.9 pounds!

We also take our time. It looked like this section of the trail would be dry based on FarOut’s comments, but we walked over springs and streams every quarter mile for a while. It felt so beautiful to see the water flowing!

Boostie noted on FarOut that we could take a short walk down the road that would take us to a 2000+ year old quartz structure called The God’s Eye. I thought we might as well do it, it would probably be worth the side quest! Absolutely it was. We had an easy hike to get there, and the quartz sticking out of the ground truly was a sight to see and feel. Even in the middle of a hot day, the quartz felt cool to the touch. We both found places to lie down and enjoy the coolness of the rock.

The Eye of God!

Once back on the road, we positioned ourselves among the members of our group. Turns out the blue fire set us back a bit, but at least we got to see something interesting! It only took us about 30-40 minutes to get to the highway from there, where we tried to get a hitch from Highway 18.

Luckily, Gandalf showed up after about 45 minutes to grab us and take us to Big Bear Lake. He took 4 of us on the first round and we stopped at the post office for Coyote to pick up his new backpack. She’s from France, so I helped her complete the customs paperwork to send her old backpack home. Unfortunately, the rest of our group couldn’t get any trouble for the next 1.5 hours. They had to wait for Gandalf to come pick them up too.

Late

We finally got to town and everyone wanted to eat at Teddy’s. Boostie and I are a little more budget conscious right now, as we would prefer to save most of our money to use toward the end of the road and travel back home across the United States. We decided we wouldn’t eat at Teddy’s and went to Laguna Grill.

Boostie had heard they made $1.50 tacos on Taco Tuesday and sure enough, they do! We each had five tacos and Boostie also had a beer, all for $20. Cha-ching, savings, baby! The staff also took great care of us. they allowed We sat with our backpacks on the patio and offered to keep bringing more tacos. Five ended up being the perfect number for us, but we appreciated how friendly they were.

Inside the hostel

After lunch, we headed to the ITH Big Bear Lake Hostel. This was our first real hostel experience on the PCT and we love it here. There’s dinner and breakfast included, plus a pool table, a hot tub, and the coziest beds. Dinner tonight consisted of hamburgers, which I ate after calling and chatting with my family for a while. Afterwards, I sat in the hot tub for about twenty minutes with two guys who were probably in their 60s. I felt bad for interrupting their conversation, but they didn’t seem to care and added me directly to the discussion!

The rest of our group did their own thing for the night, and after taking a bath in the hot tub and drinking tea before sleeping on the front porch, I felt extremely ready for bed. I’ve been sleeping 3-4 hours a night for the last week, so I’m hoping tonight will be a little quieter than that!

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