Day 34 - PCT 2024
We decided to try to make it up to the top of the ridge before the storm blew in. Our weather reports were saying noon so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time since we knew we’d be post holing part of the way. Kathryn and I decided to wake up early and start hiking by 7:30am. Hiking in the morning prevents post holing as the snow hasn’t had time to melt with the warm sun. We could have ducked down VanDusen Canyon Road as we camped right beside it but we agreed getting those extra miles of ascent were worth the effort.
The snow was exhausting. I post holed pretty hard toward the end of our miles. At one point I was tempted to just crawl. It was like every single step I took was a post holing nightmare. It was short lived, thankfully and I was thrilled when we reached the benches at the top of Cougar Crest Trail, where we had decided to head down into Big Bear.
While we were taking a quick break a lady hiked by and asked if we were PCT hikers. She was thrilled and sat with us for awhile asking tons of questions. Her name was Lisa and she told us she hoped to hike the PCT one day. She offered us a ride into town and we were thrilled to not have to hitch hike!
We had Lisa drop us off in the Village in Big Bear Lake. It was still so early in the day so we decided to grab brunch and bottomless mimosas at Stella Luna. The food was delicious and the drinks hit the spot. It was so beautiful out. We sat on the patio for hours questioning our decision to drop back down into Big Bear rather than continuing. But by 3pm, as we were wrapping up our mimosas, the clouds blew in and the wind picked up. We ran over to our hotel on the lake to check in. We definitely made the right call.
In the evening we braved the rain and wind and walked over to the Laguna Grill for Mexican food. It was delicious but I actually ate way too much. We practically ran back to the hotel to get out of the rain. The temperature was freezing. So glad to be in a warm bed tonight.
