Day 28 04/13 Into Big Bear

The wind started rushing down the little canyon where we slept around 9:00 pm and didn't stop. I actually didn't sleep at all. I heard the giant trees creaking, swaying back and forth with the wind. I hoped none would come down in the middle of the night; I tried to pick a spot that was free of widowmakers- as free as possible. I wondered if Arrastre trail camp was better in the summer when the weather would be hot; or if it was always this windy and cold.
I tried everything, putting on more layers, even cracking open a hand-warmer someone gave me that I kept for a night like this. I put it in the bottom of my bag to try and warm my feet but the warmth was negligible compared to the wind. I just remember the sun coming up and being mad to see it.
It's not as fun to put decent miles in when you don't sleep.
I need a better sleeping bag, but at around 300 bucks for a decent down bag I figure the biggest change I could make to my sleep system that would give the most bang for the buck would be to get real long underwear, like some Patagonia Capeliene or some Smartwool. Everyone raves about how warm they are. I'll look into it when I get to the Cajon Pass where I can run to REI.
As I got out of my tent Joe was poking around camp looking in the bushes. Apparently he was missing pieces of his stove and a stuff sack that the wind had "stolen" in the night.
I got up quickly and found his stuff within two mins. I followed the direction of the wind and found both items on the edge of camp.
It's a game now, for me to find Joes lost stuff. I love it. I'm gonna put a list up soon of all the stuff he would of lost and the price had i not been there. Its literally been hundreds of dollars worth of gear now. That's our yin and yang.
He loses everything, and I find it. :)
We only had ten miles into Big Bear. We were out of the snow and the wind wasn't too bad, It couldn't be too hard of a day...
It got colder and windier after we left camp. I layered up and put in headphones for motivation. The wind got worse and worse until at some points it almost knocked me off my feet. Then it started snowing, but not too hard. I got a little bit of signal for the first time in days, my grandma had texted me warning me of two storms- the one we had holed up for and one we were walking right into.



It was a race to get to HWY 18 before the storm really started coming down. The ten miles felt a lot longer than they were with the wind pushing you off the trail and the snow beginning to blow sideways. Even when it wasn't snowing the ice would blow right off the trees like little bits of hail hitting you in the face.
We made it to the Cushenbury grade summit at HWY 18 were we would hitch into Big Bear just as it really got bad. As we walked up a forest ranger was there sitting in his truck. We thought we got lucky and wouldn't have to try and hitch. He backed his truck up to us as we came down off the trail to the road.
The winds were now 50+ at this saddle where the road was. It was the first time on the trip I could lean into the wind and it would hold me up.
He unrolled his window long enough to say "Big Bear's that way"- and took off.
Another guy let us crouch behind his truck so we could check our maps real quick in the wind- when Joe went back up to his window to say thank you he sped off.



We were not going to get a ride! Car after car passed us by as we stood there with our thumbs out, my clothes whipping like a flag in the wind. I thought out of all people, the forest ranger would understand our situation! Maybe it was policy, I don't know.
Finally two vehicles that had passed us by came back- two ladies going to a christian ladies retreat. They only had room for one of us in each vehicle, but they would get us into town.
Turns out the lady giving me a ride (Becky Barrett-Smith) was an author, had had written a book on coming to God and salvation. She said they never EVER pick up hitchhikers, but they didn't like the idea of us having to stand out there in the cold.
That amazed me. All of the people that passed us by, and these two ladies with cars packed FULL of food pulled over, discussed picking us up and busted a U on a high mountain road in a snowstorm. Just to do something nice.
There are actually good people still left in this world.
As we made it closer to town, the snow really started coming down hard. They got us right where we needed to be. We thanked them and walked into the safety of the hostel for the night and out of the storm.

That last picture down below, right in the middle you see a little orange and blue right where the shadow meets the light. That's me, holding up Joe's $200+ down jacket. He loses, I find. :)