Pacific Crest Trail: Big Bear: Day 1: I-10 into the San Bernardino Mountains

Pacific Crest Trail

Day 1: Mile 210 to 226

Starting off... I think we're a few miles up from PCT Mile 210 where we started. Maybe 212?

Wind turbines spinning away.

Man and dog.

Welcome to PCT Section C.

Just entering the wind farm north of I-10.

Starting to ascend into the mountains. First ascent was no joke.

Very dry. Peak elevation on this ridge about 3,000 feet.

Over the first ridge and down into Whitewater Preserve, about PCT Mile 218?

Some beautiful country.

Did someone practice on this rock? Drilling holes??

Super nice campsite, PCT Mile 226.

Yum yum, freeze dried pad thai. o_0

Night was quite pleasant even without a fire, the fire made it pretty awesome.

Section hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), starting section C. Today's goal: 16 miles from where we left off (PCT Mile 209.6) a long time ago, off I-10 coming down San Jacinto... only now we're heading up towards San Gorgorino and Big Bear.

Desert scrub and wind farms marked the first few miles, including a lovely climb up to 3,100 feet or so before descending into the Whitewater Preserve starting around Mile 217. The Whitewater River isn't much at this time of year, but it's running water and a decent amount of people.

After lunch, a nice walk deeper into the hills, mostly avoiding switchbacks in favor of a rugged but mostly well-graded trail along the trickle that is Mission Creek. Had a bit of scare as we ran low on water, but things were flowing the further north we went. *whew*

Camped a beautiful campsite right by Mission Creek, mile 226.2. Pleasant weather, tons of stars, and we were right under the flight path for LAX or ONT. The only issue was an unexpected visit by a coyote while we were filtering water-- made off with all of Cody's food and a bunch of Travis'. Yikes.

Fortunately my food wasn't touched and neither was any of Travis' freeze-dried... we did an evaluation and decided we could press on. Cody probably loved it, since he no longer had to eat dog food the rest of the trip, and instead got to eat human food, including the rest of our beef jerky! (hmmm... was he conspiring with the coyote? :-P )