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.
Time for some comfy bed sleep before hitting the trail for the foreseeable future!