Day 18- Jenn

At the end of day 18, I am exhausted and feel so good. We busted out some huge mile days leading up to today, and now I'm feeling it. Day 16 took us out of Big Bear and into the back mountains. We started out with 6 other hikers and felt like it was major party time, since there was also booming bass and rave music coming from somewhere yonder. We all thought we were going a little kooky until someone finally asked if anyone else heard it. It went on for as long as we walked. It grew fainter as we dropped into canyons and crossed mountain tops, and then cranked back up when we got closer to the source that we never found. I don't know if it was the snow, amazing views, great company, or good music, but we were cruising at an amazing pace with 18 miles done in no time. I don't know what our initial goal was, but we felt good so we kept on going. Our first couple of water sources were dry, but we did find an awesome toilet in a wooden stall in the middle of nowhere. We hiked and hiked until we didn't feel like hiking anymore, so we set up camp in a boulder field and watched the sun go down while our dinners rehydrated. 24 miles done. Boom. Day 17 was pretty epic, mainly because of the healing powers of the Deep Creek hot springs and naked old men wearing white tshirts. Seriously though- it was magically healing. We made it to the pools at around 2:30 and hung out for about an hour. It wasn't crowded, which I hear can be a problem, but it was a Monday so I guess that made sense. In the course of an hour I was offered "medicine" twice and saw more wiener than I wanted to, but it was a much needed stop for our tired bodies. We left feeling great, hiked out of the Deep Creek area and into another creek where we met a self proclaimed Reptile Guy who lives in a trailer on the northern end of the creek, trains hunting dogs, and in his free time collects data on reptiles and amphibians in the area. He gave us water, told us all about the rubber boa and mountain snakes he found, and warned us of the hot uphill stretch to come. Ha. Clearly he didn't know that we had been walking for 2 weeks. We thanked him and moved on, settling at 29 miles in a campsite tucked into the trees. This morning brought the aftermath of a 29 mile day and dealing with new pains made the day frustratingly slow. Things picked up a little bit when we came upon a trail magic ice chest with water, oranges, hard boiled eggs, and Cadbury cream eggs. I had been craving Cadbury cream eggs for the last 150 miles- and as we have discovered, the trail provides. We went up and down and all around the Silverwood Lake area, then back up and out of Silverwood Lake area. It was long and hot, and all we wanted was the Mc Donald's and hotel at the end of the day. It seemed like it would never come, but then it was in sight. And then we were inside. And then we ordered. And then I went to the bathroom. And then my mom and dad walked in and called us hiker trash. Probably the best surprise ever! My mom is obsessively following my tracking device so they planned to drive 1.5 hours from their house to surprise us at the end of the day. I had never been so happy to see them, and I'm petty sure no one noticed, but I definitely teared up. So we ate our mc flurries and fries and told them stories of the trail, then got a ride .5 miles to the hotel (gotta save the walking for the trail) to begin bathing and relaxing.  So now I am bathed and relaxed and all blogged out- so I'm gonna go. Thanks.