Day 14 – First Zero in Big Bear City
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 0
So far on this trip, I’ve been hesitant to take a whole day off. I did 14 into Idyllwild and stopped, 9 out of Idyllwild up San Jacinto, and 10 into Big Bear city yesterday, but never a full day of zero hiking. That changed today and it was wonderful.
I woke up in John and Julie’s beautiful home, came downstairs to eggs, bacon, biscuits, and homemade sausage gravy made by John, an incredibly talented cook, which was a phenomenal start to the morning. Once I had eaten to my heart’s content, I relaxed in their hot tub for a little while before packing my stuff together to start the day.
Jim was headed back onto the trail today and in an unfortunate fit of excitement yesterday, I had left my trekking poles at the trailhead, so I accompanied John and Jim to the trail to see if they were there. They weren’t, so John brought me into town to get new ones at Big 5, and I also walked him through some basic backpacking setup in the store. I got some reasonable poles, but I’ll definitely miss my old ones. Who knows, maybe I’ll pass the person who has them and propose a trade.
My plan for the rest of the day was to find a good hiker box to leave the Dick Smith challenge book, get a hotel, and relax. John and Julie had offered to take me in another night, but I didn’t want to be a burden and decided I could use a little alone time because I clearly don’t get enough of that on trail. I found myself in the Racoon Room of Stanik’s Nature’s Inn, which has an adorable collection of trash panda knick knacks everywhere.
At $40 a night, I was totally happy to have my own room, a shower, a fridge, a bed, and a porch swing. They also have a HUGE hiker box (more like boxes) and tons of sample sizes of different toiletries and such. It’s a really nice, cozy place for pretty cheap, so I’m happy.
I rummaged through the hiker boxes and got a few things (vanilla pudding… SCORE 🙌🏼) and then went to the store for a few small things. I bought a small bottle of milk at the store, poured in a bit of the pudding powder, and shook it like a salt shaker. After five minutes, I had a delicious but hard to get out of the container bottle of pudding while sitting on the porch swing. Best. Day. Ever.
