Day 16 - Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Mile 241.4 to Highway 18 - 24.7 miles. Miles from Mexico 266.1

Joe & I emerged from our cocoons to a promising improvement in the weather. By now I was calling Joe "Tracker" as he quickly scouted for the track which he found within 2 minutes. So after throwing down some Pop Tarts we de-camped quickly to keep warm although Joe was keen to get moving & warm

Joe goes by the Trail Name of "Banjo" as he carries a guitar  - it's on his back under the pack cover.
It was encouaging to see the sun emerging through the trees which made for a spectacular start to the day particularly when the sun shone on the nearby  mountains (a bit blurry as I was trying to stop shivering)

As we warmed up walking we started to appreciate the magical morning gifted to us with stunning scenery with the contrast of the desert below

With the sun on our backs we knew we were fine & we felt pretty good with ourselves. We committed to walking out to the road for a hitch in to Big Bear.
We spotted deer tracks as well as what we think were mountain lion paws. But around 250 miles we had the bizarre experience to pass bears in cages - apparently they train these animals for movies - cage looked a bit small for the poor grizzly.
The rest of the day saw us crunch through snow until we got down in elevation. We even started getting glimpses of Mojave Desert. At the highway end of the trail a PCT section hiker was parked up & gave us a lift to Big Bear to end a fortunate day Weta