Day 26 (27 April) - Mile 239.91 - 250.47

Mission Creek Trail Camp to 0.23 miles North of Animal Cages, CA

Brrrrr. That was a cold night. Luckily our sleeping bags are rated for 20 degrees since I would guess it was around 30 with a pretty good wind chill. The good part of last night was the tent was pitched on flat ground, so it was really comfortable. So comfortable that we slept until 7:45 am...not good. Now we will have to rush to get in our 10 miles before it gets dark. 

The issue this morning is that we need to filter 8 liters of water before leaving camp since this is the last water for 16 miles. So, break camp, filter water, eat breakfast, filter some more water to replace what we used for breakfast, and now it is 11:15 am.

Luckily today's hike looks a lot easier than yesterday's. From looking at the maps, it looks like today will be a little up, a little down, some flat meandering, a little up, a little down, and stop for the night. Sounds great. 

Amazingly that is just how the day went with the only obstacles being snow and downed trees.

Some pretty deep snow on the trail in some places. 

Tree on the trail.

Another tree obstacle.

There was also some great views of Mount San Gregornio:

The snowy peak of Mount San Gregornio in the background. 

The trail today was wonderful. The ups weren't too steep and neither were the downs. Lastly, most of the trail today was free of rocks making it pretty easy to navigate.

Time to get this bag off my back and take a break!

A little rest before a bit of a climb. 

And then we came across this:

What kind of print is this?

Of course we are thinking it is a

mountain lion print and the area we saw this in looked like what I would picture to be mountain lion territory. We came across a hiker couple and they thought it might be a mountain lion print as well (btw...her name was Bear Print!).

Then, the more we thought about it the more it seemed like a dog print. We came across another hiker couple and they confirmed they saw some hikers with dogs. So happy...now I will be able to sleep without much worry. 

However, we did come across this, just 0.23 miles from out tent site:

BEAR!!

I guess this is a ranch where they house animals used in Hollywood.

Speaking of our tent site, it seems to be nice and flat, although a bit cold again tonight. I guess a cold front is going through, but it is supposed to get warmer over the next few days. Just one more night after this in a tent and then we hit Big Bear Lake for a 2 night stay and a zero day!