Date: May 16, 2017
Miles: 4.6 miles (7.4km), from mile 261.5 to Hwy 18 access to Big Bear.
Health: A good nights sleep, feel great.

We woke up early with Blis as we went to sleep so early. Kelly and Derek were still in their tent when we left. It's amazing how fast you can pack up your gear when you know you're getting to a town.

It was still really cold so I hiked out with some extra layers and my wind jacket. Even the sun didn't warm up the air enough to hike in my regular hiking clothes. This cold front has really put my clothing choices to a test.

We hike fast as we're hungry and don't feel like eating any hiker food, instead we're saving our appetite for the hiker breakfast in town. We make the 4.6 miles faster than we calculated and make it to the ride hour earlier than we had planned. On the way we pass Dragon and Andrew, and few other hikers who all were still in their tents.

We wait few minutes to see if there are any other hiker coming behind us and then jump in to the van and head towards Big Bear.

Blis and I had made reservations to both Motel 6 and the Hiker Hotel. We felt like we'd go to the Hostel instead as we'd heard it was more centrally located and had better hiker services. Once we saw the Motel 6, and how far it was from everything else, our minds were made up.

Luckily we made reservations as once we got to the Hiker Hostel it was starting to get full. We wanted to stay for two nights so we got in front of the line. Our room wasn't ready yet, it was only 8am, so we got instructions where to go for the $5 hiker breakfast, and that once we're back we could use all the hostel services. The one we were most interested was shower and washing machine.

We left our packs at the hostel and headed for the breakfast. As we entered the restaurant, I heard "Reindeer Time!". It was Furball and Squarepants. I guess that's shaping up to be my trail name?

We sat down with them, ordered our breakfast with extra bacon and sausage, and traded trail stories.

After the breakfast we headed back to the hostel, threw all our clothes to the washing machine, and headed to the showers. Being clean felt so good.

The rest of the day was spend resting, meeting other hikers, and raiding the hiker boxes. We wanted to go to the local brewery and also to see the Guardians of the Galaxy II at the $5 Tuesday movie night. We ended up being so busy with all the sitting on the sofa and eating that we missed both. Maybe tomorrow?

Doing a nero and zero is going to feel so good! I'm hoping to give my legs some well deserved rest and few of the remaining blisters time to heal.