Day 18: March Towards Big Bear

Start: Mile 239.9 Mission Camp

End: Mile 256.2 Arrastre Trail Camp

The trend continued this morning: up at dawn and on the trail hiking by 7am. It was again another beautiful morning.

Yesterday we had gained most of the needed elevation to reach Big Bear Lake. Today the trail would have a few ups and downs but mainly the trail traversed around the south-eastern end of the San Bernardino Mountains. We still had twenty-six miles to hike before reaching Highway 18 where we would meet our good friends Rob and Stacy. As we hiked, we had views looking back towards Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.

We walked across our first snow patch.

And we had views of the moon setting over Mt. San Gorgonio.

We reached one viewpoint on the trail where we had 180 degree views.

As our day continued we passed by a private facility that houses trained wild animals for movies. We had heard that there was a lion, tiger and grizzly bear but we only saw the bear.

It was sad to see such a large and beautiful animal in such a small cage. There was a posted sign, however, that the animals were being moved to a new location with more space for the animals to live. Hopefully that is true. The property was for sale also.

As we got closer to Big Bear the trail paralleled Highway 38 (Rim of the World Scenic Byway) for several miles and we could hear cars zooming by.

And we saw this posting for the local Big Bear Trail Angels.

Then we reached Arrastre Trail Camp which had multiple tent sites, a couple of picnic tables and nearby water (sorry I forgot to get a photo). And we enjoyed another delicious trail dinner.

Thanks for reading.