If Only You Were Here

At mile: 369.3

Hiking out of Big Bear Lake

We left Big Bear on Saturday morning. Because it was the weekend, the trail was filled with people. We hiked among dayhikers raising money for charity and dodged off-roading jeeps and mountain bikers. We were planning a big mile day, but at the 20 mile mark there was a picnic table near a tent site, and if you have ever lived outside, eating at a table with a seat is the height of luxury. Overall, we have been having a great time since then. The water sources are still too far apart, we are still occasionally tired and sore, but we are pretty happy out here.

If any of you reading at home were here with us, you would have loved the last section of trail. We were in canyons and high desert grasslands, hills of wildflowers and evergreen forests. If any of you were here, you would have loved relaxing in the shade for a midday nap on the bank of a wide and slow river, dozing off to the sounds of dayhiker's kids and dogs splashing around. You would have liked the next few miles too, hiking along a canyon wall above that same river as it snaked through the valley hundreds of feet below.

We camped that night next to stagnant pools of water, and maybe the bullfrogs would have kept you awake, but to us they were soothing. The next day, you might have liked the hike through the hills that wrap around Lake Silverwood, filled with wildflowers and butterflies that tumbled clumsily through the air. In the evening, we hiked to the pavilion of an established picnic area near enough to civilization for cell service and a pizza delivery. You might have enjoyed the look on the delivery guys face as he realized he was dropping off as many pizzas as there were people to eat them. Maybe like us, you would have been so full of pizza and slept so well that night, you wouldn't even have minded waking the next morning to find the campsite had been enveloped in a cloud and everything you owned was soaked through with condensation.

The 15 mile hike the next day would have flown by, as you anticipated town food. And when you arrived at that road crossing with us, marked with a sign stating that the McDonald's was just 0.4 miles off trail, you wouldn't even have resented the extra mileage. Like us, you would have remarked that the McDonald's staff was very accommodating, leaving out surge protectors so everyone could charge their devices simultaneously, stepping around the piles of dirty backpacks without complaint, and not commenting when we went back up to the counter to make a second or third order. You might have realized, as we did, that the hotel across the freeway was a Best Western, and therefore, able to be reserved by credit card points.

The next morning, as we threaded under highways and train tracks, you might have relished the feeling of heading back in to the wilderness. It's possible a few of you would have even liked yesterday, climbing through and then above the clouds and sitting with us at a tentsite 15 miles into a grueling 20 mile uphill as we remarked that we weren't even that tired despite the terrain. Maybe you would complain as you rubbed sunscreen into skin that was already coated with a thick layer of brown dust, while begrudgingly admitting to yourself that the dust and sunscreen combo was probably doing more to prevent a burn than sunscreen alone.

Last night, you would have zipped yourself into your sleeping bag and cinched it up until just your nose was sticking out and you might even have fallen asleep before the sun set. If you were out here with us, this morning you would have awoken and climbed from the tent to find that the valley below was blanketed in a cloud and you might have stood at the cliff's edge and wondered how far you were above that cloud. 2000 feet? 3000?

The seven miles this morning would have felt light and easy, pine needles softening the trail beneath your feet as the trees they came from towered overhead. And we all would have made it to a road crossing in record time, immediately hitching a ride with a friendly stranger, and heading into town. You might have chosen to join us for breakfast at a cafe and when your belly was full of scrambled eggs and chicken fried steak, you would have sat back in your chair and, like us, felt very content.

In Wrightwood at a Trail Angel's house