lions and tigers and Bears by jay

We were hiking down a jeep road when we encountered the mapped location "4roads and a trail" we saw  2 GRIZZLY BEARS in  cages.  My first thought was to run away as fast as possible.

I found a gun shaped piece of plastic. It also looks like an airplane too.
I am into airplanes, that is why I want an FSX or Flight Simulater X with a joystick and a Red Bull plane, a army helicopter, and the fastest plane in the world today, whatever that is. 

                                                                                                                                            

Big Bear Lake Section C half done

 150 miles?  These boots are demolished

 Beautiful wood statue in Idylwild

 We hiked through a wind Farm.  The guys that work there invited us in for cold water and to sign their trail register.

 I am so glad we did not hike this mountain!  But this monster sure is pretty

 Proof we are hiking in WILDERNESS

 Our trusty pooch and green tent.  Camp on the Whitewater River

 Crossing the Whitewater river

 Dirty Dog

 Redwoods

 Oh Baby check that eye candy

 Micro Spikes!

Wow what a hike.  We started this one in Cabazon Ca on I-10.  We got dropped off on this dusty dry desert trail in a suburban neighborhood at 4:30 PM.  We didn't have enough water so we asked a guy doing yardwork for some.  He was excited to meet two crazy hikers and went in to the house to get his Mom to meet us.  So we got on the trail about 5 PM walked a mile and camped in a dry wash next to a failed development.  Thru hiking-- you never know what to expect.

The next morning we got on the trail early.  We hiked above the highway and the town into a windy side canyon covered with wind power  hundreds of windmills on the trail was a sign saying PCT hikers welcome.  Wow, we headed into the shop and all the guys on shift were coming onto lunch break.  They seemed like a great crew, ethnically diverse and educationally diverse.  We drank some cold water with them then got back on the trail.  We climbed and climbedafter passing a saddle between two drainages we entered the San Gorgonio Wilderness.  Our first wilderness in a couple of weeks.  A bit afterlunch we ran into 3 golfers walking towar us in tennis shoes with no water or gear or anything.  We were 8 miles from Cabazon and thought what the heck.  It turns out they had made a wrong turn on a short day hike- they were 2 miles in the wrong direction.  We know that feeling.  They turned around and followed us to the Willands Conservancy trout farm on the White Water River.  They have some of the biggest trout I have ever laid eyes on.  It was a half mile from the PCT so we checked it out.  It was a cool place.  After a rest break of an hour or two we got back on the trail and camped in Whitewater Canyon.  This canyon was amazing the bottom was coveres in very white rocks and white water. The effect made the whole canyon looked blue. We camped in the canyon on a white sand beach.  It was beautiful.  The next morning we hiked up a canyon to a higher pass and then finally dropped into the Mission Creek Drainage.  We hiked up this river for 2 whole days, gaining 3000 feet on the way.  We camped on the river that night then a place called Creekside camp the next night.  From the camp we climbed another 2500 feet finally reaching a high ridge of 8, 500 feet.  It was amazing we were surrounded by snow capped peaks.  We camped on the end of a mountain and had a near 360 view from our camp.  We boiled snow for water and had an early dinner then to bed.  The next day we hit snow banks on the trail almost immediately we out on our microspikes and struggled through them for miles.  The snow was pretty soft.  we sometimes walked on top and other times busted through somtimes to your hips.  The scariest thing on the trip so far was when we had crossed most of the scary stuff We had taken our spikes off and were crossing short bits of snow with obvious trail, except this one.  I crossed first and once across heard a tiny Jay voice say "Mom, a little help here?"  He was hanging over a 30 ft slide onto rocks holding onto his hiking stick that was embedded in the snow.  Picture a porch flag with jay as the flag.  I dropped my pack slipped on my spikes and rescued him but OMG it scared us both half to death.  But intrepid adventurers we are we pushed on.  We got to coon creek jumpoff which is a shear drop off of 1000 feet or so.  From there we kept on hiking through some lovely and strange places.  As we zeroed in on getting to Big Bear a highway came into view(HWY 38) We wound up camping at a campsite on a jeep road wich seemed to do double duty as party spot and dump  site.  We slept well and got out of there early.  Today we hiked 14 mile before 2 PM and hitched a ride with a BIKER like real biker two hogs in his garage and works at the local harley shop.  He was really nice and drove us to the hostel.  We had an extra lunch, dinner, ice cream.  I am wasting away on this hike.  Jay is eating two to three times more than I packed for so I don't eat quite enough. So when we are in town we pig out.  I think I have already lost 10 pounds.  Jay seems like his same old lean mean energetic self.  Today after our 14 mile super fast hard hike he went to a climbing wall for 2 hours. indomitable!  That's all for now.  We are taking a zero day her in Big bear then it's off to I-15.  SoCal and highways inseparable!

I am still waiting for a trail name- Jay has earned heel dragger but we still call him Jayhawk.

Whiling away in Idylwild

 Sunset in Section B

 Jay and Utah on top of the ridge

 3rd Gate Water Cache

 GIANT Yuccas

 This is amazing Eagle rock

 Hiking into Warner springs through fields of poppies

 Snow in Tule Canyon

Pamtastic and Sonja
Jay and I have been stuck in Idylwild for 4 days waiting for his new boots.  I hope they come today. 

We have had an interesting hike now that we are in section B.  We finished Section A at warner Springs.  We started out the next morning running a few errands then getting on the trail around 9:30.  Unfortunately we went the wrong way.  We hiked about two miles before we realized MY error.  By the time we got back to our starting point it was lunch time.  we had a lovely lunch under a shade tree and then began our hike.  Up the hill we went following the Aqua caliente River.  We climbed and climbed.  We were at about 1500 feet  above our start when I realized we hadn't enough water to camp and hadn't seen any for quite some time.  I decided to run back down the hill to the river where we left it.  Jay looked for camp.  2 hours later we had a lovely dry camp above the trail and plenty of water.  the next morning we headed out to discover the river full of water in a 10 minute walk from camp.  We crossed the river a few more times then climbed some more.  Finally we came out on a ridge.  We followed that awhile among darkening skies.  We camped on the high ridge (about 5, 500 feet) It was a cold and rainy night.  At dusk a couple walked through our camp.  Apparently we were just a mile from a community in the valley below.  They were very nice.  The next morning dawned cold and misty.  We got out of camp around 8 AM, but we couldn't see much but the wonderland of boulders we were hiking through.  About 9:30 a breeze started up.  The mist began to thin but OMG it was cold.  At 10 Am we pulled out more warm clothes and the camp stove and made some hot chocolate to warm us up.  The day got windier and windier.  We kept climbing finally topping a peak.  The wind was so intense it blew me over a couple of times.  The gusts felt like someone was grabbing your pack and shaking you.  I thought Jay was going to take a trip over the rainbow like Dorothy.  We made it over the mountain and down to a drainage.  Jay and I pushed toward our next resupply.  We wound up having a horrible campsite, rocky, steep with no place that was flat.  We unpacked the packs just as the rain started.  Brrr.  Cooked dinner then early to bed and the warm tent.  In the morning my first comment was "what's hat chunky stuff on the rain fly?" Snow of course.  We had about an inch and a half of snow.  A cold breakfast with snow falling on us and we wanted a town bad!  The sleeping bags were wet, the tent was wet.  We decided to bail out to Anza.  It was 3 miles to where we hooked up to the Tule Canyon road then 8 miles to the Anza campground.  There is a levely trail angel that lives at the campground.  larry drove us and our new thru hiker friends Pam and Sonja to Idylwild where we picked up resupply.  Where we still are, waiting for Jays boots.  Today we are heading to sectionC, B being too high and snowy.

Our next town stop will be Big bear lake.  Any mail or packages can be sent to the Big bear lake Hostel c/o vicky mattson  http://adventurehostel.com/

We will post photos at the next oppurtunity we have.

Vicky and Jayhawk

80 miles and 7 days down

Hello friends we are finally on the trail.  Today we decided to hitch into Julian CA to buy a day more food and lots more water. 

Here we are at the Southern terminus on the Mexico Border

As we were hiking down the Laguna Mountains.  We could see our next month of hikes as the mountains stacked up in the distance.  But now we are dropping into the desert.

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We started out on a chilly day.  Jay had a complete meltdown as we were leaving.  He is over that now.  We Hiked to a ridge the first night in the rain and cold, Woke up to a misty cold morning.  Then we kept climbing for 4 days untill we reached the Mount Laguna Lodge at 6000 ft.  That was a couple of days ago.  There was water every 1/2 mile or so so we were pretty light those first days. Then we started down.  We passed this sign this morning with our distance to canada plus the distance we had come 69.5 miles.

We got water from a concrete fire  tank.   The next water was hitchin into Julian.  Scissors crossing was empty.  Jay got a tick today and it was 100 degrees

That's the last mile marker we saw.