Big Bear Lake!

May 25, 9:13 am

We are taking a full day off today at Big Bear Hostel and I get to type this entry on a real keyboard! We came into the resort city of Big Bear yesterday in time for lunch yesterday. About 15 miles before the road into town the night before we were hiking up the trail and saw an unusual sight: an armchair sitting by the trail! Next the to the lazyboy was a cooler of fruit courtesey the Big Bear Hostel. It was pretty amazing to recline and eat a banana while watching the sun set behind the mountains. Other places to stay in Big Bear also left "trail magic" on our way to the road (colas from the Motel 6, water cache from another inn) but since the hostel was so creative with their magic we decided to stay with them. It's a great hostel with laundry, internet, kitchen, movies, kayaks and bikes! We came into town with Todd, Heaps and Shadow (George) and met a new hiker, Skywalker, at the hostel. Monologue came into town later in the day. We found a big buffet at the Sizzler and watched Little Miss Sunshine.

This is a big resort town and full of people on this holiday. We hadn't planned on taking a day off (zero day) until mile 450 at Agua Dulce, but we won't be able to pick up a package at the PO until Tuesday because of the holiday which we completely forgot about. The day off is much welcomed, even though unexpected.

Garrett made pancakes for breakfast for everyone this morning. Today we plan on shopping for crocs for Garrett, resupplying and biking around town. I'm working on uploading some pictures. Heaps and Shadow are leaving today but hopefully we'll catch them in Wrightwood, our next town. Todd and Monologue are heading out tomorrow, though.

We're at mile 265 and we feel pretty good about our pace so far.