Day 18 Tues May 6

Slept great, took today off to rest, relax and regain calories! Feeling good today. We went through our packs and together pulled out 1 pound 14 oz of stuff that we are not using and mailed it home! And right now Neighbor is picking up the memory card to the camera and another care package that someone sent! Goodies! We bought some extra food for the next 80 mile stretch to Wrightwood and we'll be heading out in the morning! Wasa cooked us some amazing french toast this morning (he's showing me up as a cook......which isn't really hard to do!) I just took my vitamins (only because Tina sent me some and I didn't want to carry them!) But those were the biggest vitamins I've ever seen, wow! Called the ranger station again today to see if those 39 miles were open yet, but......no, not yet. So, that's it for now, 0 miles and feeling good!

Day 17 Mon May 5 (cinco de Mayo) :)

Woke up freezing cold 27 degrees! Our drinking tubes to our camelbacks were both frozen solid! Brrr, I didn't even peek my head out from underneith my warm sleeping bag until 0630! When we did get going, we just kept our sleeping clothes on (smartwool bottoms) and threw the hiking pants right on over top of them until we hiked a mile or two and warmed up! Easy walking, still in the beautiful trees! Got to Highway 18 around 1:30 and hitched a ride into Big Bear City to the Post office and picked up a package from Priscilla (with yummy cookies and goodies inside) and a letter from gram & papa! Then we caught a bus on the scenic route to a hiker hostel in Big Bear Lake. Tons of hikers there, free internet, phone and good times. Showered, did laundry and Wasa went to the store and bought supplies for dinner! He's quite the cook, salad, baked potatoe with chives, shredded cheese and sour cream, steak and real garlic bread! I went to bed FULL! Second time sleeping in a bed on this trip and it just keeps getting better!

Day 16 Sun May 4

What a great day! Pine trees, squirrels, cedar trees, beautiful smells, even a small patch of snow to walk through........we were in the mountains! Over 8500 feet up and loving every step of this day! We would actually re-hike this section (where as in the desert........you couldn't pay me enough to re-hike any one mile that we've already covered) Towards the end of our long great day, we came up to these wild animals in cages. I guess they are the retired Hollywood wild animals from movies. Lions, tigers and bears.........and one VERY big BEAR! Yikes! It was actually rather sad to see them all caged up. We hiked 1 mile past the cages to camp and listened to a lion roar all night long! Cold night.