2013-05-17 - Day 9 Twentynine Palms, Ca, to Big Bear, CA

5/17/2013
Miles: 00

7:00 AM
Twentynine Palms, CA

The smoke yesterday turned out to be the park maintenance people burning a big pile of tree and shrub trimmings.

This afternoon I will pack up and drive up to Big Bear to meet Dan at the trail crossing of Highway 118 near Big Bear. It is clouded over and cool here this morning. Big bear is slated to have a high of 58 today but the good news is there is a 0% chance of rain in the forecast. We will camp in the Big Bear area 2 nights and it will be good and chilly (mid to high 30's) both nights. Ugh!

Yesterday I put up the new tent I purchased at our Walmart stop on the way to Whitewater Wednesday evening. I pitched it to make sure there would be no surprises in the field. The quality and size are similar to the Coleman 5' x 9' it replaces, fair at best. It is not quite as easy to pitch as the old one but it will be fine. Without telling the whole long and boring story the old tent has had quite a bit of use and had a couple of potentially serious problems and it was time to replace it. It would be nice to have a better quality tent but this one will do, at least for the foreseeable future.

5/17 Holcomb Valley Campground 8:45 PM I napped until 11:00 then got up and started preparing to leave. I finally got away at 1:40, a bit late. By the time I drove to Yucca Valley, got gas and went to Walmart it was 2:50. I was due in Big Bear at 4:00 and expected to be late. To my surprise I arrived a few minutes early even though I made no particular effort to hurry. Dan had been waiting since 2:00. We drove to the Supermarket to get a few final items then came here and set up, cooked and ate dinner and have been sitting in the car listening to the radio.

I also took The Fuji bicycle off the car and installed the inexpensive bike computer I picked up at Walmart. When I bought the folding bike I took the mount and pickup from the bike I have here and put it on the new one. I have ridden the Fuji so far on this trip with no computer but I much prefer riding with one. I took a very short test ride in the campground and the computer seems very adequate.

It was very chilly when we got here but it warmed up quite a bit since the sun set and the breeze died out. The camp host claims it will be in the 20's tonight but we have our doubts. It will be cold enough to give the new tent a good test. It went up reasonably well. It will get better with practice.