PCT Day 22
Mile 239.9 to 259.4 (19.5 miles)
Start: Mission camp spring at 8000 feet
Stop: the wild donkey campsite outside of Big Bear
We woke up with our teeth chattering to the temperature gauge outside reading a solid 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Our tent was covered in a nice dusting of snow, ice chunks and the ground was frosted in a light blanket of snow pellets. Two days ago it had been over 100 degrees out in the sweltering desert valleys and now we had snow and were experiencing an almost 80 degree temperature drop. We had put our water filter in our tent last night sandwiched between us so the filter wouldn’t freeze during the night and break the membrane. Unfortunately one girl camping out forgot to bring her filter in during the snowy night and now it couldn’t filter water anymore, icicles having burst the filter membrane. We offered her some emergency water treatment drops but she had some that she was using until she could replace her filter.
Despite being successful in the filter not freezing department, unfortunately our water bottles that we had left outside had almost frozen solid. Shannon went to grab water from the spring this morning which had even more icicles dangling from the dripping cave than last night. It was really hard to get up in the cold weather and we definitely dawdled so much at camp that we didn’t leave to go back on the trail until 10am. What slackers, lol!
The morning was chilly but we moved fast in our shorts and our T-shirts to stay warm. We later found out that today was a high temperature of 46 degrees Fahrenheit. No wonder the day hikers were looking at us funny as they sported winter jackets, warm hats, long pants and gloves, and we were just in shorts and T-shirts. Today the terrain of the trail was really easy and fast today in comparison to yesterday’s big climb up the mountains and bushwhacking through an overgrown stream bed for 10 miles (aka “Hell” as some hikers called it). We made great timing, listening to baby birds squawk from their nests high up in the pines and the morning passed quickly.
We stopped for lunch at the old Coon Creek Cabin where we met thru-hikers Haiku and Luke. We wanted to rename Luke to “Three times” or something like that because he got lost three times in a row looking for the trail which was just next to the cabin. Shannon I hung out with Haiku for a while who was from Texas. Haiku had completed the Colorado Trail, half the Appalachian Trail and had just finished the 800 mile Arizona Trail before starting the PCT.
The cabin that we hung out at had definitely seen better days and you used to be able to reserve it to stay in it over the weekend. Currently the cabin was rundown and graffitied everywhere with no doors to be seen and a very leaky roof. Lots of off-roading vehicles pulled up and checked out the place and the gorgeous view nearby. One very nice couple in a big pickup truck talked to us and said that they were so jazzed up about being out here that they each gave us a fresh mango as Trail Magic to enjoy which were delicious. We thanked them so much and Trail Angels if you’re reading this we didn’t catch your name, but you were in construction and a special education teacher – thanks for the sweet mangoes and for helping us through hikers get our vitamin C!!
While we were hanging out, I flew the drone, and then it started getting really cold so we packed up and headed out. We spent the afternoon wearing a bunch of layers to stay warm and saw what looked like rain or snow clouds up in the mountains we were trekking into. We were hoping so badly that we wouldn’t be seeing a second helping of snow so soon on the trail!
Later on in the afternoon, we passed by an old empty private zoo that backed up to the Pacific Crest Trail and at one point you could be hiking next to lions and tigers. A local had told one of the thru-hikers that the animals at the zoo used to be in movies. But…during the COVID pandemic they had all been euthanized, so that they “…wouldn’t get COVID.” It was an interesting way to justify killing all of your exotic animals. Someone had taken the large animal bones found tossed outside the zoo next to the PCT, picked them up and arranged them into the phrase, “Wasteland.” These are probably the bones from all the animals that they had euthanized like the tigers, lions and bears. It was super creepy and we got out of the animal graveyard quickly. It felt like some “Pet Sematary” vibes and that Stephen King was going to pop up somewhere to scare us.
We carefully hiked over some large rockslides, down sandy trails through hushed pine forests and passed a bunch of springs and creeks where we grabbed water before heading to what we were calling “the wild donkey camp.” We watched the tail end of sunset from our tentsite, hung out with our buddy Haiku and cooked dinner in the dark. We went to bed with it still being really cold but we were so thankful that it was not snowing again!
During the night, we heard feral donkeys hee-hawing in the distance which was a somewhat alarming way to wake up. The donkeys had once been part of the town of Big Bear City but had gotten into too much mischief eating out of people’s trash cans so they had been relocated out here in the desert.
Our friend Catdog later told us that while he was camping at the wild donkey campsite that some forest rangers came by in the middle of the night. They were checking on an owl that lived out here and to better see what owlie was up to, they shot a rope into the trees to climb up and install trail cameras to catch photos of the owls, which is pretty cool. We didn’t see any foresters out today but as we went to sleep, trying to warm up in the chilly high altitude desert air, we did hear lots of owl calls and what sounded like donkeys hee-hawing over the hillsides. Donkeys are a very strange alarm clock to have – I don’t think I’d recommend it for anyone due to the distorted horror movie sounds they make in the pitch dark!
