Big Bear Lake is a cozy little working class town of only 5,000 people, nestled in the San Bernardino National Forest at an elevation of 6,700 feet. Its claim to fame is “the only four season resort town in Southern California”. In the winter, the draw is the ski resort. People come from all over SoCal to hit the slopes and shred some nar. In the spring, mountain biking season begins, which runs until the snow starts to fall in Autumn. Summer and fall is boating season. Although the other lakes in the area have completely dried up due to the 20+ year drought, Big Bear Lake is holding strong (for now) and it’s a popular destination for all sorts of water recreation.
We knocked out 12 miles at record breaking speed, motivated by the thought of real food and a shower, before rolling into the parking lot where we’d hitch a ride into Big Bear. Luck was on our side - a local trail angel, Jacqueline, had just dropped a load of hikers off at the trailhead and was headed back into town. Despite us being stinky and covered in dirt, she graciously invited us into her vehicle. As we drove toward the Motel 6 where we’d be staying, Jacqueline gave us a tour of the town, recommended the best restaurants, and chatted with us easily, as if we were old friends. Upon dropping us off, not only did she refuse any sort of compensation for the lift, she also gave us her business card and told us to call her when we were ready to head back to the trail. She was truly an angel. We’ve been awed so many times by the generosity of the PCT community.
We arrived to the Motel 6 about six hours prior to check-in, but, once again, our room was ready and the staff was generous, so up to our room we went. We threw our bags in, decided to forego the showers we desperately needed, and darted towards Lumberjack Cafe. Holy shi shi - best breakfast ever! Chris’s first course was an omelette the size of his head with a side of biscuits and gravy plus a fruit cup. I started with a heaping portion of Huevos Rancheros and breakfast potatoes. We licked our plates clean but found ourselves still hungry. We flipped open the menu once again, scanned the “off the griddle” section, and put in our second course order of loaded French toast. That did the trick. Our bellies were finally content.
We spent the afternoon riding the town’s free trolley, periodically jumping off to tend to our errands. We hit the local sporting goods store for new shoe insoles, shoe glue, and Fanny packs. Our shoes were on their last legs, but after some serious patchwork they were good as new. We purchased the Fanny packs to encourage ourselves to do more snacking out on the trail - it’s much easier to take in calories when there’s a whole basketful of them right in hand’s reach. Our next trolley stop was Von’s grocery store. It was the first legit grocery store we’d been in since starting the trail, and boy was it overwhelming. I think we spent two hours in there scanning the shelves and trying to decide, amongst all the decisions, which items to purchase to nourish us throughout our next section.
We spent the remainder of the day resting and recuperating, as we planned on hitting the trail again the next morning. That didn’t happen though; we didn’t hit the trail. As the day went on, we felt increasingly more run down, plus Chris had a bum ankle, now a full blown kankle, that was begging for a full day of rest. So we booked another night in our grand motel room and afforded ourselves a proper zero day.
The next day, our zero day, kicked off back at the Lumberjack Cafe. We gorged ourselves once again, but slightly less than the morning before. Then, more rest and recuperation. That evening we met with Amy and Paul for a delicious dinner at Saucy Mama’s, a local Italian restaurant and pizzeria. Everything we ordered was phenomenal. We followed that up with a couple rounds of drinks down the street at the brew house. It was a perfect end to our zero day. Chris and I caught the last trolley of the day, by the skin of our teeth, back to the Motel 6. The trolley was loaded with about 10 other PCT hikers also bound for the motel. It felt more like a party bus.
At 8am the next morning we sulked down to the lobby, bummed to be leaving the comforts of the Motel 6 and the town of Big Bear. I honestly didn’t know it was possible to feel excited about checking in to a Motel 6 or bummed about checking out, but we felt both of those wholeheartedly. The morning was made better by Amy and Paul’s smiling faces, which awaited us outside the motel lobby. They took the trolley over to us, so we could all ride back to the trailhead together. Jacqueline rolled up a few minutes later, greeted us warmly, and we all piled in. Casual conversation and laughter filled the car all the way to the trailhead. By the time we arrived, our spirits had been lifted and our excitement for the trail restored. We were off!
Thanks for having us, Big Bear!
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