Post-Thanksgiving Hike, PCT Section C (Big Bear to Silverwood)

[Redwood Guy]

Hey All,

I am going to be down in Victoriville and Big Bear for Thanksgiving later this month.

I am planning on hiking part of the PCT, specifically Section C, Mile 0266 (Hwy 18) through Mile 0314 (Hwy 173, first encounter).

Here is the very awesome "Halfmile" map for this area of the PCT:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50366/PCT/ca_section_c_map.pdf

Scroll to page 7 (Hwy 18, Mile 0266) and than go through page 13 (Hwy 173, Mile 0314)

Expected temperatures for the region are a high of 51(f) and a low of 23(f) so this would be a great time to test out all of that winter gear you have been buying!

The best part of this section is that except for about one 8 or so mile area, the entire time you are within 3 miles of a town, should you need to bail out or really bad weather looks to hit. Pretty much within an hour or so you can be in a town in a nice warm hotel.

I will have family dropping me off at the top of Highway 18 and picking me up at the corner of Highway 173 and Arrowhead Lake Drive (just outside of Hesperia).

If you would like to see my own notes for this section they are here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50366/PCT/Th...010%20Hike.txt

Water up there is probably going to be scares so expect to be hauling 2-3 days worth of water. There should be water in Deep Creek, but that is 30-odd miles into the hike. Holcomb Creek is pretty much hit or miss depending upon rain in the previous few weeks, as I understand it.

I will be taking my GrizzBridge Bridge hammock plus a WB Traveler. I will be using a WB Big Mamajamba Spinn UL for my tarp. I will have food for myself (hawkvittles) and water for myself. So, while I might be able to supply an extra hammock, that is about it. Water will be the killer for pack weight on this one, if you really pound through the water, I typically do not, but I will be having at least 4-5 liters at the start. Will be able to judge better once I get down there and see just how hot/sunny the days are.

Elevation for this trip will be starting at 6,831 and ending at 3063 - so lots of downhill hiking.

You can grab Google Earth maps for this at:

http://www.pctmap.net/download/p/gearth.html

That is actually for the full PCT but once you have opened it in Google Earth, just do a search for "big bear" and you'll easily find the region.


With Thanksgiving being Thursday November 25th, I was thinking of starting around 8am or so on Friday. Which would result in an end day of Sunday. So, if you have Friday off you should be able to get this in without having to take a day off work.

That is, of course, dependent upon mileage. First day (as I have planned it) is 12 miles, day two is 16 miles, and day three is 20 miles. Nice gradual build up. The last day, if I remember that area enough from my teenage years, should be very easy hiking. Pretty much from Deep Creek through to the Mojave River Forks Reservoir. If I remember right, pretty much all of that is dry and not a lot of bushes to get snagged on or slow ya down. Though, probably a fair amount of side'hilling it.


Anyway, that is about all I can think of sharing about this. If you are interested in doing this, I'd love to have a few other guys up there with me!

I will throw out this one disclaimer: If it snows, or there is snow on the ground, I will *not* be doing this hike. I have zero intent of trying to trail break through 48 miles of country without the ability to see the designated trail. I have no desire to have to have S&R come find me/us. That's just not why I am doing this. I just want to get out, do some hiking and hammock camping. Not try to find my way through nearly 50 miles of trail that is covered over by snow, not to mention that would drastically increase the time-on-trail and that would result in not getting to the end on Sunday (or probably not). It is just not worth it. That said, I would totally be up for camping somewhere up there in a designated camping area for a couple of nights. Just don't plan on hiking. Could drive into the city for the day and enjoy doing the "tourist" thing during the day than heading back to the camp site for hammock camping at night. I have a California fire permit (but have no intentions of having a fire if this is a hike, unless it's just hella cold)

So yeah, anybody up for this??

[Redwood Guy]

Just wanted to bounce this back to the top of the list.... anybody from SoCal up for this?

[Redwood Guy]

Hey All,

This is getting canceled due to weather conditions.

Sad

[leaftye]

Due to weather? Is there snow already? I assume so since it's a bit early to cancel due to a weather forecast. I know it was icing up near the top of San Jacinto earlier this week, but not so much around 8000 feet which had similar conditions to the area before Big Bear...or at least that's what I found this spring. The trail should be fairly easy to follow if the snow is thin, unfortunately it could get very tough to stay on if the snow was thick because the fires a few years back took out a large section between Hwy 18 and Deep Creek. I sure didn't feel like making a camp fire after walking through all the devastation.

As far as water goes, you should check here:
http://www.4jeffrey.net/pct/a.htm

Unfortunately there haven't been updates lately. I think that Holcomb Creek would still have water, which means having to carry much less water.

It sounds like it would be a great hike, but unfortunately it's too far for me.