Arrastre campground to big bear city - 9.9 miles

Total - 266.1 miles

I now take it as a competition to get all ready before the guys but currently I’m losing that battle as Marc and Christian got out of camp before me. I quickly caught up to Christian who was filtering water and passed him only to filter water about a mile downstream. He still didn’t pass me. Not that it’s a competition but I do take my mornings very seriously and I hate losing mornings. It was a quick day to big bear lake and I juiced the miles. Not as quickly as Caleb though as he did all 10 miles, no water, light pack, and was ripping 4 mph to catch up to us despite being 30-40 minutes behind. I tried to hydrate more as you guys may know based on my last journals entries, my bowels are movin in directions I don’t want them to move. Instead I peed more throughout the day on top of the constant shitting. The hiking was easy but the entire time I was trying to figure out what type of hood print was in the dry dirt and I was guessing donkey which would have been incredible to run into but I was too busy looking down trying not to trip that I apparently missed the 4 donkeys on trail. Very disappointed in myself. I also saw my first Joshua tree of the trail which is super exciting but incredibly disappointing when you realize those fucks are going to be your only shade in a couple of hundred miles. Most incredible thing I saw today was a multi-million dollar house that was spectacularly clean (no bush, well groomed) that had its own wind mill and an array of random impressively built sheds throughout the establishment that could house an army. We pulled up to the highway quickly after to find a hiker box with olive oil (absolute score) and non alc beer which Caleb was very disappointed in. A guy quickly offered us a ride into town to the grizzly manor where I ate a big breakfast sandwich with hash browns and went back for seconds of the biggest pancake you could order. Welcome to America baby! Pictures included of course. Easily 1000s calories and I hammered it down like a fucking champ. After we lounged around until we decided that we should resupply and then head to the Airbnb. My first resupply without the aid from the folks so it was really scary to feed myself. Quickly reverted to a child and bought 7 bags of candy to make a candy salad because thats all I have been craving these past couple of days. Other than that nothing too exciting for resupply. I do keep getting talked to by crazies though who also warn me about the other crazies which is crazy. One guy stopped me (old white man but you probably could have guessed that) told me his was a nurse and very patient he ever sent to the doctor died. He told me not to get a vaccine at the liquor store bc everyone he knew that did that also died. Quoted “they stick ya and then you get staff infection and become gaunt, never trust doctors, the only patients I knew to live to 100 are garlic, onion, and cayenne pepper as it opens up the lungs.” Sick dude! Then we got on a bus to get closer to the Airbnb and a Vietnam war veteran warned me about the crazies and proceeded to tell me how he went to a trump rally asked two very important questions “do you believe in god?, do you trust him?” And somehow equated that to trump and Elon didn’t really hear him nor did I want to be in that seat any longer. Idk if I mentioned this in another post but I had another man in idyllwild ask me where I was from and then proceeded to tell me “oh ya know that 51st state? Yeah Alberta wants to be annexed so we should take them and be even more powerful!” Idk if I have stupid written across my forehead where these people think it’s okay to talk to me. I don’t have a powerful enough resting bitch face apparently. I gotta work on that. Once we got to the Airbnb we relaxed and I got to call hunter and my parents and update them on everything. Then we ate pesto pasta and hopped into the JACUZZI! So relaxing, definitely will be there in the morning and night trying to heal my back and relax my muscles. No plans for tomorrow besides bath tub laundry and organizing/cleaning my pack. Soops excited for that. Currently on the top bunk bed with 2 feet of head space but I couldn’t be happier to be out of the cold and in a warm comfy bed.

Best thing about the Germans today is they still don’t understand tipping. Americans are all about effiency until it comes to tipping as we never know what we are actually paying. Same with taxes. They are baffled and everytime it is funny.