Today, we got to summit Mount Baden Powell, named after the founder of Boy Scouting . It will be the second named mountain I have summited, though both it and Mt. San Jacinto are technically on spur trails and not the PCT itself.

I woke up well rested after spending a night at Canyon Creek Inn with Burnout, Valdy, and Bedazzled. The joy of a mattress and running water should never be underestimated.

While the views from the top of the mountain campsite yestetday were excellent, the winds that came after the sun went down weren’t and my tent was flapping around all night hitting me in the head when a strong gust came.

There was universal focus and drive among the group today. No debate on how far to go or where to break. The goal was McDonald’s.

I woke up from my sandy cowboy campsite along the river. It was perhaps my best night’s sleep on trail, though i got some condensation on my quilt. The 80 foot scramble up sheer rocks to get back to the trail was a good wake up call.

Today’s goal was all about getting to Deep Creek. The rumor had been going for days that there were some nice hot springs right on the trail, and we were fixing to find out for ourselves.

Bedazzled and I woke up to frozen condensation on our sleeping bags this morning after a chilly night. We scrapped it off with our fingers, which made them cold down to the bone.

Today we went into Big Bear Lake to resupply. We walked the .3 miles to the road and tried to hitchunsuccessfully for about 40 minutes until a nice dude in a huge truck pulled over and gave us a ride. It was his first time picking up PCT hikers.

We warned Hip (real name) that the site he chose was the poop site. Apparently, some asshole crapped in a perfectly flat tent site and didn’t even pack out their toilet paper. Since Hip doesn’t have a trail name, I was hoping he we would put his tent stake in one of the buried poop holes so I could name him Poop Stake. Unfortunately, he managed to avoid the hidden poops.

We broke camp from our river campsite at 4,800 feet and started walking up the valley. The next two days, we will be climbing up to the mountain town of Big Bear Lake.

The stay at Hillbilly Dave’s turned out to be a great time. Good people, a spaghetti dinner, and shelter over our heads during the overnight rain. Unfortunately, people were watching Harry Potter on TV after the sun went down, but I got my ear plugs and pulled my buff over my eyes and was good to go.

Today was a day of extremes. Extreme beauty and extreme conditions.