Another update from Vince:

So I'm officially 10% of the way to Canada. I just took a night off in Big Bear City - stayed at the Nature Inn, which has a hiker special. For $50, you get your own room WITH A HOT TUB! Talk about living large. The food I've been eating on the trail is definitely getting old, so it's great to come to town for a day and binge. In less than 24 hours, I've had: a huge bacon cheeseburger, and ice cream sundae, 6 tacos with rice and beans, a breakfast special of pancakes, bacon, and eggs, and just had an enormous carmel apple sundae (specialty item at the local bakery/restaurant).

The last section of trail was spectacular, but with a ridiculous amount of elevation change. I started hiking at around 3,000', then climbed into the San Jancintos (like a small version of the Sierras, complete with snow) and summited Mt. San Jacinto at 10,800'. The following day I dropped all the way down to about 1,000' (in one day - crazy), and hiked across San Gorgonia pass (near Palm Springs), where the temp was 110 during the day (and didn't drop below 90 one night). Despite drinking as much water as possible, I got really dehydrated, and had by far my hardest day on the trail. The heat, and lack of water, is really taking its toll - many hikers have quit alltogether over this section. Luckily, my spirits remain high. I then climbed to 9,000' in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. After so much hot weather hiking, it was great to hike amoung huge pine trees and need to put on long underwear at night! Coming up, I drop back down into some low-elevation and hot weather, but have some trail-side backcountry hot springs coming up . . . so I'm really excited to hitch back to the trail here in a few minutes.
---
Some pictures he sent back - the photobucket page will be edited by him (hopefully in about a week) to include the best of the bunch he sent back - I'll let you know when it's ready.

From a flowering desert:

To a mountain view:


Vince's new pets/friends: