On my 44th day on the PCT I started hiking at Doble Camp, climbed high on the ridge near Bertha Peak, got great views over beautiful Big Bear Lake, and then crossed back over the ridge to camp high above the Holcomb Valley.
From PCT mile 268.6 to 282.6 Total: 14.0 miles 11/1
I woke up in the pre-dawn darkness at the Doble Campground and it was freezing. Thirty degrees! Yesterday morning at Onyx Summit, two thousand feet higher, it was about the same. Why didn’t I get my ten degree temperature increase? Probably because I was down in a valley where the cold air pools. I sighed, but it didn’t change anything. I cooked and ate my oatmeal with my legs under goose down, wearing my fingertip gloves. Brrr! I saved getting dressed in day clothes until the last possible minute, and still added my goretex layer on top. Then I hustled to get my pack ready before I froze. Thank goodness it wasn’t windy or I might have!
I started hiking at first light, using my headlamp initially. The sunrise was turning out to be very pretty, and I stopped often to take photos of it, as the colors kept getting better and better the higher I hiked up the switchbacks on the way to Gold Mountain.
As the light grew brighter, I eventually turned off my headlamp. It was still Deer Hunting Season, so I was displaying my orange poncho on the back of my pack, but I had yet to see a single hunter, unlike a week or two ago when they were all over the place. I continued climbing, happy that the sun wasn’t out yet. Not that I was sweating in this weather. But, as a photographer, morning light is a magical time when everything looks better.
There was a broad plateau up on top, just beyond the mountain. Hiking was super-cruisey, and I blasted right along. There were places with so many flat spots that you could camp an army there. I remembered hiking through here, back in 2016 with Vicki, when she was also a happy hiker in the morning. An hour or so later, the trail began to descend into a canyon. There was a well-plowed forest road at the bottom, plus a trickle of water, which is why there were also plenty of camping spots that PCT hikers often use.
At this point, I had already hiked seven miles, albeit at record speed. This was almost half of my “official” fifteen mile limit. Yesterday I overhiked, a total of seventeen miles, and I had to recalibrate my hiking plans accordingly. I was originally only going to hike thirteen or so today, but with that extra two miles, it would now be eleven miles, a ridiculously short day. Last night I stared at the map for quite some time, and the next decent campsite that made sense was at Little Bear Springs, down at the bottom of Holcomb Valley. Here at the forest road was a sign saying that it was almost eleven miles away! Ouch. My feet hurt just thinking about it. But what else could I do?
So on I hiked, uphill out of the canyon toward the ridgetop near Bertha Peak. As I climbed, I got better views, as always. Off to the north was upper Holcomb Valley, a forested region with grassy meadows. There was also the bright white mountainside which puzzled Vicki and me for many years until we drove on Highway 18 down into the desert and discovered that it was part of a cement mine. That’s why it was so blindingly white. Calcium deposits or limestone, no doubt.
The biggest excitement of the day was when the PCT broke out on the southern side of the ridge. Big Bear Lake was below, filling the entire valley floor. Off to the south was San Gorgonio Mountain and the Nine Peaks (over 10,000 feet elevation) all of which Vicki and I bagged on a long weekend back in 2012, over ten years ago. That was a really fun trip, fittingly called the San Gorgonio Nine Peaks Challenge. A SoCal Boy Scout favorite.
Soon enough, I arrived at another forest road crossing. Two days ago, I drove up here out of the town of Fawnskin (down below on the shore of Big Bear Lake) and hid my second water cache, a gallon jug of water. I must’ve had a brain fart when I arrived, because I walked all around the place where I thought I hid it for almost ten minutes before I found it. Whew! For a while there I thought that maybe someone else found it and kept it, but it didn’t seem likely. There was hardly anyone on the trail out here, just one or two SOBO hikers per day. It was nearing the end of the season for southbound thru hikers, and soon it would be snowing up here.
Once again, the trail climbed up and over the long ridge, this time to the north. And it wouldn’t be coming back. Holcomb Valley was on this side of the crest, where the rainwater all drained into the Great Basin. Big Bear Lake drained into the Pacific Ocean. This area was not designated wilderness. It was good old National Forest Land, and there were dirt roads all over the place, dirt roads that citizens with ATV’s and Jeeps could travel on and enjoy. If there were going to be any deer hunters on this hike, I would find them along here.
But it was mid-week, and the season was getting on. The first excitement was over, and there were no hunters around today. Soon, the trail neared the high edge of Holcomb Valley. The broad meadows I’d seen earlier were long gone. Now it was a deep trench with a creek flowing along the bottom of it. It was quite pretty from up here. There were willows down near the water whose leaves were turning yellow for Autumn. Even up here there were oak trees doing the same thing.
Somewhere down below me was Little Bear Springs Trail Camp, my destination. It was a very long way down. Years of experience told me that there would be no flat spots to be found as the trail side-hilled down into the canyon. Then, as I was hiking along, I suddenly saw a flat area just off the trail, out on a tiny side-spur of ridge. This campsite wasn’t marked on the Far Out app, but it was obvious that others had camped here before. I checked the app. It said that I had already hiked fourteen miles today. Practically my perfect fifteen number! Ah, this was excellent. Should I camp here? I asked myself. It was high up, at 7500 feet, so it might be freezing by morning, whereas the other camp down below was a thousand feet lower. It was also in a valley, so it might be even colder, I reasoned. I realized that I didn’t need the creek at all; I was carrying all the water I could possibly need. And that was that. I would be camping right here tonight, with this awesome view and everything! And then I took off my pack and set up camp. It felt good.
It was only midafternoon, but I was happy to stop early. I put a space blanket on the tent to block the sun, then sat inside on my air mattress. It was warm in there but not roasting hot. That trick really works! And weighs almost nothing. One of those dual-purpose items that is also part of the ten essentials. I texted Vicki via my Garmin InReach and cooked myself some dinner. It was a wonderful day to be in the mountains.
Afterward, I walked around a bit. I read my book for a while. I watched the sun set in the west as it bathed the forest in golden rays. As the air cooled, I put on my warm night clothing and put away the mylar sheet so I wouldn’t have to deal with it in the morning. Camp chores. I marked this spot on my CalTopo app, and planned my next few days. I might be able to push them a bit further each day so the final day would be short. That way I would see Vicki sooner. It was a worthy goal. I still had three more nights to go after tonight, but I could dream that the end was closer. And then I zipped up the tent and sleeping bag, and I did some real dreaming.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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