Day 22: Mile 298- Cheesecake Friday

Today was a special day, which, in my eyes definitely warrants a special post that will be posted at a later date. Today my friends, was the inauguration of Cheesecake Friday, the day which will no doubt be the highlight of the week.

After leaving Ziggy and the Bear's, things have been awesome, don't get me wrong, but they've been fairly ordinary compared to what we've been dealing with lately. Theres been a lot of climbing mountains, going back down, wandering through thick forests and then back down to the heat of the desert. Today was cool though, we spent all day walking through a forest that had burnt down a few years ago. It's pretty neat looking across from one ridge to the next, seeing tall black trees with no foliage. All that was living was the undergrowth and the saplings and shrubs that were taking advantage of the available sun. It also made me very conscious of the fact that these forests are like tinderboxes and only I can prevent forest fires.

Anyways, we found a nice flatish spot to camp down by a stream and while Jesse, Waffles, Gator, Kaboos and I sat around our fire, Tyler was busy working away in the darkness, diligent at his craft, putting together the surprise he had been talking about for a week. I had never imagined getting trail cheesecake, let alone such amazing trail cheesecake. He made it from completely dry ingredients, powdered mix, powdered milk, he let it chill in the cold stream until it was perfect and oh was it ever perfect. You have to understand something, we dont eat well out here. It's a good day when you mix mashed potato flakes with your ramen noodles for dinner. So this was beyond imagination. I'm still not sure exactly how he did it, but I'm happy that he did. Now it's just 7 days until next cheesecake Friday. I'm pumped.

Happy Trails,
Mike

Ps Still don't think I can format pictures well from my phone, but here is a picture of Big Bear Lake, with Mt San Gorgonio in the background, and then one of the charred forest.