Today was a big day that would see us gain over 5,000 feet in elevation. We started early in an attempt to beat the heat.

The trail wound through the hills steadily gaining elevation all morning.

We worked our way through another fire damaged section.

As we gained elevation we started to see more pine trees.

Every step brought us closer to the snow covered peaks we’ve been seeing in the distance over the past few days.

Near midday the trail turned and gave us a view back towards Big Bear and the mountains we hiked out of a couple days earlier. To our surprise we saw smoke from a fire burning on one of the mountains.

Later in the afternoon we entered Angeles National Forest leaving behind San Bernadino National Forest

Reaching heights of over 8,000ft, we had to traverse steep patches of snow. Hard to believe the temperature was in the 80s yesterday!

The trail wound through part of the Mountain High Ski Resort and we took a moment to relax on a ski lift.

We ended the day at the Blue Ridge Campground.

It was very cold and windy so we bundled up for a frosty night on the mountain.