Made Camp:281.6
I woke up at 5:45 am, I knew my Dad wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to be out the door at 6:30 on the dot. He was going to give me a ride back up to Big Bear where we would pick up Joe and Dan and hed drop us off at the trail.
My 12 year old sister who had school beat me to the shower so I snoozed it. Ten minutes later she was still in the shower so I decided to eat a little something. I had an apple and an orange. Then it was 6:12am and I was starting to get annoyed because all I wanted was two minutes of hot water before I left civilization again for a week.
I went up the stairs towel in hand, ready to say something when I heard my dad kick her out.
"Sage, get out of there now and let your brother take a shower!"
Thank God.
I'd almost given up. I was gonna stink anyway.
I took my two minutes and it was glorious. Ten minutes later I was out the door with my pack on.
My dads car was gone-
It was 6:28! I was two minutes early! I knew he had to go to work.. I'd heard him open the garage, but I thought he was just getting the car started, waiting.
I stood there for a moment. Maybe he had to get gas or something. I was about to call him when he pulled up.
With a fresh, tasty McGriddle.
I would've had granola bars.
Thanks Dad.
An hour later we had Joe and Dan in the car and we were on our way to the Cushenbury grade summit, where we had left the trail to hitch into Big Bear.
My dad dropped us off and we walked back into the woods.
Recently I'd felt like we could have been putting in more mileage each day, although I was glad to ease into the trip and we had been steadily increasing our average daily distance. I hadn't said anything to Joe though. He was a good partner, and his feet were healing up.
Not five minutes into the hike, Joe turned and says,
"So, i think I'm ready to start doing 20's."
I was immediately pumped and excited to tackle this next section to the Cajon Pass. I figured five or six days, and I'd be at home with the family for a little three day rest and visit. If we start to pull 20 mile days, well get there sooner and I might get a fourth day.
There was still a foot to two feet of snow left in a lot of places on the trail, but giving it a couple days to get sunny again made the snow really manageable and we barely spent any time postholing.
Dan, Joe and I hiked west all day along the back of the San Bernardinos until just before sundown when we came to a horse camp. It had a latrine WITH toilet paper, a metal fire ring, a stream and a picnic table!
And no horses.
We were gonna be pretty spoiled tonight.
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