November 3

Distance: 15.1 miles | Ascent: 2910′ | Descent: 1360′

Lunch: J – pastrami sammy (A+), A – club sammy (A+)

Dinner: J&A – Shin noodles (A-, B)

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There isn’t a coffeeshop in the Village part of Big Bear Lake. At least, there wasn’t one that was open early enough. The nearest coffee shop open at 6am was a few miles away. Usually, a few miles wouldn’t be a problem, but these weren’t trail miles and thus didn’t count – no need to waste our precious energy walking them.

A hiker friend recently started using all the food delivery services and was ecstatic with all the discounts they received as a new customer. Remembering this, Jason used one of those services for the first time and got a very steep discount for a coffee delivery to the hotel room. It might be the laziest moment of his life. But alas, we got our fix and could start the day in earnest.

We picked up our box at the post office across the street. We have good meals in this stretch. When packing the box back in June, we guessed what our favorites might be, and which were the lightest to carry. We weighted those meals’ distribution towards the longer carries near the end of the hike. We also have a lot of Snickers in this box. Of all the bars we have – various protein bars, candy bars, fruit bars – Snickers are a contender for being the favorite. Considering the calories we’re burning, they’re not too bad nutritionally. Yes, lots of sugar, but a decent bit of fat and some protein from the peanuts. We wouldn’t only eat Snickers, of course, but they’re a nice treat, reward, or motivator depending on when we choose to eat it that day.

We also sent off a box at a shipping store. The owner had a group of playful and sweater-donning kittens inside!

At checkout time, we left the hotel, milking every last second we could. We took the bus to the grocery store part of town where we also got lunch at Mountain Munchies Cafe. The sandwiches were generous and delightful.

After we had our fill, Jason popped into the grocery store to get some hard candy. Sometimes, it’s nice to have a little sugary snack to occupy a mile or so as we try not to think too much on our hunger or thirst, or how difficult the trail is. Jason likes Lifesavers and Alex likes Jolly Ranchers. But we fear there is an ongoing extinction of hard candies. We did Werther’s caramels for a bit, and those are fine. We did store brand butterscoth, and those were less fine. Besides those three or four options, what is there? No root beer barrels. No strawberry swirly things. Peppermints? You’re out of your mind if you think we’re going to be chainsmoking peppermint candies as we hike. Even most Lifesavers and even some Jolly Ranchers candies available now are gummy candies. Are hard candies out of vogue? Is this something else that the millennials have ruined? Back in the day, you could probably get your penny sweets in any flavor your heart could dream. Now, the hard candy selection is desolate.

A trail angel and her canine travel companion, Rosy, gave us a ride back to the trailhead. We saw some other hikers trying to hitch into town. We had met one before. Two others were new friends who had seen our names in the trailbooks. We didn’t hang out too long, fearing we would make them look like a big group of 5 and dramatically lower their chances of getting a ride.

We eventually hit the trail. Even though we feel so close to the end, we still have about 10% of the mileage remaining. We’re fast now and the trail was fairly easy today. The coolness was already taking hold in the late afternoon at the high elevation.

In the dark, we crossed 2400 miles! We didn’t see any markers, so we made our own out of pinecones, scurrying around the woods by the light of our headlamps to collect the cones. The result was quality.

Alex saw a bobcat hiding in a bush! Or, at least she saw two front-facing eyes, glowing orange in the light of her headlamp, and a pair of fuzzy tufted cat ears. It disappeared silently, despite all the crunchy leaves covering the forest floor.

We got to camp by the moonlight. It’s almost a full moon. Maybe we’ll have another spiritual mystery about the Moon’s orbit. It’s too early to say how we’ll react under the full moon.