Monday, May 11th -- Day 19

Today was much better than yesterday.

We packed up camp at around six-thirty and took off uphill. I messed up my food budget after Idyllwild, so I skipped breakfast and trudged through to lunch. Steve gave me some beef jerky to tide me over. He's a cool dude.

After lunch, we hit a good stride. The area around us had changed dramatically from yesterday's hot, dry, shadeless canyons. We found ourselves traveling along mountainsides well shaded by trees, with cool breezes pushing us along.

At around three, we hit a water cache supplied by either nature's inn or the hostel in Big Bear. Just as we were leaving, we ran into the managers of the hostel, who pulled up in a truck to refill the cache. We ran into them again a mile down the trail at another cache. This one had coolers full of bananas, apples, grapes, and cookies. There was even a beat-up recliner facing the view of the mountain. The hostel manager had a dog, a big German Shepard/wolf named Chief. I put my hand near him to pet him, and he growled loudly. I thought about punching him, but did not.

After the water cache, we hit our groove and covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. By we, I mean Tom, Steve, and I. We left Jerry far behind, and now it is nighttime, and he has not found our camp. I hope he's alright out there on his own, the poor dear.

'Night.