Little Food, Big Bear

Day 18

Big Bear City, that is.

Ww woke up at an early 5am to get ready and into town as quickly as we could. Unfortunately, we woke up groggy and tired. We soon realized how out of energy we were, because there was a lot of up hill today. It was as if our legs just couldn't go up any incline. They didn't hurt, they weren't sore, they just didn't work! Fortunately they worked long enough to get us in 15 miles to Big Bear City, CA... Solely on gummy bears, as it was the last of our food.

As we got to the road, we began to hitch into town. My girlfriend and her mom are good friends with a couple in Big Bear, and they were kind enough to offer to put us up while we stayed here. We began to hitch, and after a while decided to call Julie and have her pick us up, and as we were calling, a guy named Rob picked us up and drove us in. He actually had an uncle live next door to them, so he knew where to drop us off.

We got to Julie, Ed, and little John's house and she graciously fed us, let us shower, and did our laundry. We were so pumped to be inside, and even more so to be sitting on a couch! We watched two great movies, and she cooked us ribs! They were delicious, and it was awesome to have some meat. We gobbled down our food, and after the second movie and playing with John a little, we were driven to the grocery store to get our second dinner, some fixings for breakfast, and beer to bring over to her brother's house.

Julie and her husband graciously offered their living room to us, but seeing as it's the weekend, we didn't want to take up their space, and she offered her brother's place! There's a couple extra rooms here, so we get to relax and sleep out of the way. Her brother, Aaron, and his wife opened their home to us, and their friends welcomed us with games of beer pong! A weird ending to the day, as the first half was unbelievably tough and draining.

So tonight we rest up, enjoy the company, and tomorrow we will do our resupply and gear up for next week -- and maybe a movie with Mr. Fox and Rock Locks (our two new trail friends).

--Ian