Amgen ouch--Palmdale to Big Bear

"""A 135-mile journey of pain and anguish and frustration, of will and of want, of physical endurance and mental fatigue.

Through the dusty streets of Palmdale and up the Angeles Forest Highway, surrounded by the charred remains of the Station Fire, a bleak landscape of blackened sand and burned trees. Up Angeles Crest Highway, more winding than a Slinky and half as fun, and over State Route 138 and its stomach-churning dips.

Past the overturned Kia Amanti and the creative teenage snowboarders and the snowcapped pines of Lake Arrowhead and past Zelda and Tarzan, the Sacramento couple hiking from Mexico to Canada and known to non-trampers as Cindy and David Peters.

Up and up and up State Route 18, into the clouds, the air thinner than a model's wrist, and through Big Bear, waving goodbye to barkeep John Bratton at the Northshore Tavern and Brewery, finally settling at Snow Summit."""

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