Bushcamp to Bushcamp
40.4 miles
Sobo mile 2386.9
Total mileage 5039.5
As I packed up my gear at 3am I noticed a chunk was missing from one of my molars! No idea what happened there, I guess it must have fallen out while I was sleeping. I grind my teeth at night, so that probably had something to do with it. Oh well…there’s no pain, so I’ll have it fixed once I finish the trail.
An hour or so later as I made my way through the canyon I saw a pair of eyes gleaming at me further down the trail. As I approached, the eyes didn’t move until I was nearly upon them. When I was maybe 5ft away my headlamp finally illuminated the creature who the eyes belonged to. It was a cat, a big ass cat! I found myself face to face with my first mountain lion!
Just as I realized what I was seeing the cougar flipped around and slinked off into the darkness, it’s large tail bouncing behind it. I spent the next hour looking over my shoulder as I hiked, very aware that I wasn’t at the top of the food chain anymore.
The sunrise was a welcomed sight as I made my way out of the canyon.
The trail was slowly bringing me up out of the desert and into the mountains towards Big Bear.
Today brings my total mileage on the PCT to 5000 miles! Nuts…
It was a long day of climbing, but it felt good to push myself. I spent the last few hours of my day hiking among pines as I made my way past Big Bear Lake and down to Highway 18, where I got an Uber into town.
After picking up some food at Von’s, I headed to the Motel 6 I’d stayed at with KP and Stretch nearly 6 months earlier. By the time I’d checked in and gotten myself cleaned up Paige had arrived! The timing had worked out that she was able to swing by on her way back to San Diego!
We went down the street to grab dinner at Sonora Cantina. I ordered my usual, chicken fajitas, while Paige ordered what she thought was tortilla soup (it was menudo). When our food came out Paige was shocked to find chunks of cow stomach floating in her soup rather than the tortilla strips she’d expected. Y’all should have seen her face…
The waiter was super cool about it all, and traded out her guts soup for meatball soup. We had a good laugh about it all as we dug in.
After dinner Paige dropped me back off at my motel and headed on down the mountain towards home, while I watched a solid 30 minutes of tv before succumbing to sleep.
P.s. One more week guys! I plan on reaching the southern terminus next Sunday, woot!
Cheers!