Today we made it to Ziggy and the Bear’s house! The first 12 miles were all downhill, from 6500-ft to about 1500-ft. The trail is really nicely graded, but that also makes it really long. After reaching the bottom of Mount San Jacinto, we trudged five miles across the desert in what felt like a wind storm. There are a ton of windmills in this area, so I suspect it’s pretty much always very windy here.
Ziggy and the Bear have been trail angels since 1996. They rent portable toilets and open up their backyard to hikers. They also accept hiker packages, so this is where we mailed our second resupply box.
The next section of trail is closed due to last year’s Lake Fire. Rumor has it they are working to reopen the trail within the next few weeks, but in the meantime, there is no alternate route. Most hikers are catching rides into Big Bear City and continuing on from there. We’ll try to find a ride to Onyx Summit (before Big Bear but where the closure officially ends).
After nearly 200 hundred miles of desert, Rob and I have yet to see a single rattlesnake. Everyone else has either gotten rattled at or seen multiple snakes. Not sure why this is…
Awesome! This is so cool! How’s your new shoes? How Rob doing?
Thanks Tom. I am very happy with the new shoes. Rob is doing great!
Marvelous landscapes and flowers🌼 you are both great walkers! Hope you could rest and take care of your feet👣 good energy 4U🌈 Corinne
Thank you Corinne!
You know you just jinxed yourself with the snakes…
Haha, perhaps I did. We’ll see…
Beautiful pictures and description. Laure and I are hoping your feet are doing better!
Andy and Laurie
Thanks Andy & Laurie! The new shoes really helped and all the blisters have pretty much healed over the past few days. I hope Laurie’s feet are doing better also! That looked like quite a tape job.
That’s great Christa. Glad to hear your feet are doing much better!!
I saw a rattle snake last year in the Castle Crags area and two more between Burney Falls and Castella. I would have been quite happy with my wilderness experience if I hadn’t seen a single snake. Though a day hiker I met in Castle Crags seemed excited when I told him about my close encounter. I can only imagine how he might have reacted if I had told him about all of the Mt Lion scat I saw about 8 miles further down the trail. Lol I hope your good fortune continues.
Haha, thanks Mike. I think I just expected snakes in the desert, so it’s been surprising to me that we haven’t seen any.