Day 26- 17 miles

11 pct miles only, because 6 or 7 miles were wasted on a trip into big bear.
Woke up early and started walking down van dusen canyon rd. to Big bear wear I could charge my phone, make calls, and get a bite to eat. At first no one had an outlet for me to use so I walked around town looking but had no luck. while sitting on the porch of the minute market I noticed a small sandwich shop that opened at 11 and thought is it worth it to kill a couple hours here to get a nice sandwich... yeah.
Made some calls on a pay phone and journal wrote and people watched till 11 came around. Walking up to the sandwich shop I noticed there still was nobody there so I checked the business hours on the window and of course it's open every day but Wednesday and yup today's Wednesday. So I ran into the minute mart to grab a bite before heading back to the trail and now the lady has remembered that there is a plug to charge my phone. Now I'll have lunch while waiting for my phone to charge, big mistake eating there as I had the worst meatball sandwich I've ever eaten it was cold so the cheese didn't melt the sauce was awful and it all seemed like it was made the day before only to be put in front of the heat lamp today where it was most likely just put under.
This morning walk down was nice it had the benefits of being all down hill and in the cool of the morning, now it's hot and uphill and my attitude is soured by the bad meatball sandwich more than the heat or the road. With just about a 1/4 mile from the trail head a nice young couple stopped and said " I know your almost to the trail but if you'd like you can hop in back and ride the rest of the way. Couple minutes later we are there "hey I think we shaved off 7 or 8 min of hiking for you". I thanked them as I hopped out the back of there Toyota pick up and though the ride was short and really didn't save me of any big miles it totally there kindness changed my attitude I even almost forgot about the hoagie almost.
Tanked up on water and filled my bottles before taking off with my suddenly changed for the better tude I marched through miles as I began to climb above and around big bear lake all was kosher before having an encounter with a couple wild animals. All of sudden I'm coming around a corner to a junction on the trail I first notice two people resting on the limbs of a large tree, when there two miniature attack dogs did exactly that attacked. I tried to just casually walk by but they were right on my heels biting my feet and ankles, all that I say however in a real calm voice with almost complete lack of emotion I say "don't bite me" which is not that effective. Then one of the owners wakes up and advises I should just kick them doesn't get the dogs or yell at them to stop just suggest that I should kick them. I'm not going to kick the dogs so I try to just keep moving through when one of them yaps me right on the ankle good but after a min or so they give up chase.
So back on the trail I start seeing big bear lake again and my elevation is dropping and I should be ascending now. Out comes the map and I'm actually on the cougar crest trail not the pct, in further review I conclude that I had missed my trail at the jct. where the dogs had took turns biting me as there owners watched. Now I actually am back on the trail and this section has a very odd but profound beauty to it. Although this landscape is mostly charred from fires of previous years there were still the remnants of what was once a wonderful place with large trees and cool running streams in high mt. environs.
Tonight I camp at bear springs which has a picnic table, fire ring, is only a few hundred yards from a solar pit toilet, and the key factor for making this my stop water flowing from a stream just below camp. A day in a life on the trail with Howdy.