3/25 – 3/31
After two nights in Julian, it was nice to see a clear sky again and I was excited to get back on trail!
Looking at the forecast, there was going to be another storm over the weekend. The impending rain created pressure to figure out how far to go before Friday night and I decided to kick up my mileage and go as far as I could.
Kim and I left by 8 AM to try to get an early hitch out of town and back to the trailhead. We didn’t see hikers anywhere on the streets as everybody was itching to get back to trail.
Kim took out her trustee hitching sign and we got picked up immediately by an older man named Ed who was on his way down to Mexico for dental work. He lives up in the Sierra near Shaver Lake so we had plenty to talk about since we were hoping to make it that far north.
I started on trail back by Scissors Crossing at 9 AM and had about 20 miles of uphill in front of me. The next water available would be in 15 miles at a water cache. Thankfully, the weather was cool.
The south-facing slopes in the Anza Borrego had entirely new plants and cacti that were not in the miles before. This included Barrel cacti and Ocotillos which were my new favorites.
Eventually, I came across the water cache 15 miles in and caught up with many old hikers that I hadn’t seen since before the storm. It was fun to find out what everybody was up to over the weekend!
All of the campgrounds in the first 20 miles were exposed and in windy areas so I kept pushing on.
I never broke a sweat with the constant wind and completed 24 miles that day with 3 1/2 liters of water. It felt good to start at mile 77 and make it past 100!
I set up my tent and ate dinner in the dark where I met Damon, Pete, and Nick at the campsite.
I would later see Nick and Pete in Idyllwild and spend a good amount of time with them.
The first handful of miles after leaving camp were so pleasant and traced through a large pasture with cows grazing off in the distance.
From afar, I saw what I would later realize was Eagle Rock. I had no idea what mile this landmark was at! It was beautiful.
Not long after, I was in a much warmer area that reminded me of home with big oaks and the cool sages in the warm air. For the first time, I was hot and needed to shed some layers. I had been wearing my rain pants and warm layers for three days straight.
I had to remind myself to rest and take breaks on big mileage days. It only took 10 minutes to kick my shoes off and give my feet a break and I always felt much better afterward.
I walked up along the Agua Caliente Creek for miles and decided to refill and wash off at the last available spot before breaking off from the creek. It would be another big climb (welcome to the PCT) up and out of the dry section.
I loved when I got to spend the mornings in the dry desert and the afternoons in crisp mountain air in the afternoons. Since the trail climbs north, there are often forests peaking ahead from the north-facing slopes. With the sun pressing behind, the sight of trees and shade was a nice change after exposed miles and elevation gain.
The weekend weather was looming over my mind throughout the day and I couldn’t decide how far to push myself to get the best out of the situation.
As much as I wanted to stay in Idyllwild, I was worried about being snowed in for a couple of days
At mile 118, my cherry pop tart and I schemed up a torturous plan to pass the whole mountain before Saturday (spoiler: I couldn’t). I would need to hike over 80 miles in the next three days to get to a low elevation and avoid the storm.
The San Jacinto range is very rocky with windy icy sections. Some areas are easily fatal without proper experience because of the steep faces and ice chutes that form in winter. I would be picking up snow gear at Paradise Valley Cafe but was hoping not to need it yet.
As part of my plan to pass Idyllwild by Friday night, I started waking up around 6:30 am to have more daylight. I learned that the early morning bonus miles are the best because I could knock out 5 miles before eating breakfast and worry less about how many miles to do in the afternoon.
I had 30 miles to go until Paradise Valley Cafe, a popular stop for hikers. I wasn’t sure if that was feasible but I started my morning with the vision of a burger that sat on the front of my mind like a carrot on a stick.
I came around the corner and had my first view of Mount San Jacinto since after Mount Laguna which was about 90 miles ago! I don’t know why I thought I could hike up and over it within 2 days.
After 138 miles I finally saw a snake! It wasn’t a rattlesnake, but cool nonetheless.
The path down was steep, rocky, and overgrown.
Sometimes I walked for hours without seeing another hiker. Most of them camped earlier after leaving Julian so I was set apart from the “herd.”
Then I fell alongside Patrick and walked together for an hour as we rambled about trail nutrition, food resupplies, and other random stories.
He is friends with a handful of previous Survivor contestants (one winner too) and they were cast to be on a Bear Grylls marathon show that got canceled because of Covid. It was a whole long story and he showed me his audition zoom video for the show.
He tried to thru-hike the PCT last year but walked into a cactus in the dark while trying to find somewhere to pee and got off the trail somewhere around Big Bear. I tried not to find that funny.
At 2:00 pm, I still had 14 miles to go until Paradise Valley Café. I was constantly calculating the miles I needed to do per hour to make it in time.
In my hustle to get to the cafe, I almost missed these tiny tiny flowers throughout the desert. They had nearly no leaves and just popped out of the sand.
Any time I spent looking at the small flowers and cacti was won back when I hustled through big areas with flowering shrubs that were swarming with bees. Passing between them made a surround sound of buzzing and I felt the need to hold my breath as if they were going to fly in my mouth. Patrick was just sharing bee sting stories from trail so I didn’t want to press my luck.
The rest of the way was so warm and I began to sweat heavily for the first time on trail.
I was on track to make it to the cafe and to pick up a package I had shipped there.
Finally, the day was winding down and the sun was less intrusive. The last few miles were really steep and I fell into a zombie mode with no time to sit or rest. A burger was all I thought about as I trudged along.
Alas, I made it to the road and realized I was still almost a mile from the restaurant and it didn’t look easily hitchable.
By the end of the day, I had hiked 31 miles and I am still feeling every one of them.
Paradise Valley Cafe is well-loved by hikers for a good reason. They have a whole mail room where hikers can send food and gear resupplies for free.
After eating, they asked if I was staying the night and said I could sleep anywhere on the property! They gave me the bathroom key, showed me where the water was, and all clocked out and left.
Sleeping on the patio saved me a mile walk in the dark and meant I didn’t have to pitch my tent! I was ecstatic to be well-fed and done with the day.
I was the only person on the property.
At 3:30 AM, a guy rolled in that I thought was a hiker so I sat up to say hello. I realized he only had an empty water gallon, a sleeping bag, and cigarettes. It was just us out there and he asked me where the Colorado River was and what was to the south and the east. Realizing he was homeless, I tried offering him the bathroom key and some water but he denied it and just sat down pretty close to me and smoked throughout the night.
It was 29 degrees and he didn’t have a sleeping mat so he only crouched or sat in a chair. If he laid down, the sleeping bag would not keep him insulated underneath. I kept my eyes open as he smoked intermittently and shifted around.
I felt safe while awake but not enough to doze off. I went back and forth between feeling bad for him and being bothered that I was not getting sleep after such a long day.
He wandered off 2 hours later and I finally went to sleep. Since I was on the patio of a public restaurant, I could not sleep in at all and was set up poorly for my big climb up San Jacinto the following day.
My mind felt slow in the morning and I found myself taking forever to do tasks. I realized right away that I wouldn’t be reaching my mile goal that day. As much as I didn’t want to make my hike about these goals, impending snow forces all hikers into a state of constant planning and anticipation.
I yawned my way through the first mile and took micro breaks constantly while leaning on my trekking poles. 31 miles the day before was too much – lesson learned.
If I wasn’t going to make it over the mountain, I would at least give myself some time to rest every couple of hours.
The only people I saw on trail that day were Langley, Skip, Bee, and Legend. Legend has been living around the trail for 15 years and spent most of it volunteering at CLEEF (the campground at the southern terminus). He met Bee a few years ago at CLEEF and they got married. She’s from Germany.
It was incredibly windy at points and many of the trees and shrubs on the ridge were bent permanently towards the east.
From the ridge, I could easily see the rain shadow effect on the Coachella Valley. Lake Hemet is on the left and Palm Springs is down to the right.
I continued ascending towards Mount San Jacinto until mile 166 where I took a side route off the mountain. I had no practice with my snow gear and decided not to go up Apache Peak because there were notorious icey sections there and I was hiking alone.
After getting off the mountain, I camped down off of Fobes Road which is not part of the PCT. Off-trail miles are the worst and I didn’t want to get off trail at that point! I hitched into Idyllwild the next morning since I didn’t have time to hike over the mountain before the storm came.
While getting a ride into town, I saw Langley walking on the road and the trail angel picked him up too. I had brunch with Langle in town while waiting for my room to be available and we reflected on how we both pushed too hard to complete miles to escape the storm and ended up in Idyllwild anyway.
I stayed in Idyllwild for 3 nights while waiting out the storm that fell throughout Saturday and Sunday. Of all places to wait off-trail, I’m not sure it gets much better.
The contrast of arriving in a trail town after spending a lot of time alone is stark. Suddenly I was dropped in restaurants and lodges full of hikers I hadn’t seen for varied amounts of time. There were reunions everywhere and people continued to roll in as the storm got closer.
I loved meeting new people over the weekend. I talked for an hour at the coffee shop with Suzanne and Rick who live in Idyllwild and got caught in conversations with other hikers and another local named Sean. The locals in town were all so kind.
The week had been both challenging and restful. I spent a lot of time walking alone and then a lot of time sitting with big groups of people. I enjoyed both.
I realized I probably would have had an ankle injury if I hadn’t get stuck in Idyllwild. My left achilles was sore at the time I got off trail but is feeling much better now. I didn’t pace myself like I should have this week and I guess I’m grateful that the homeless guy kept me from sleeping because I was too exhausted to hike as far as I wanted to.
There has been an endless discussion about where to rejoin the trail after the snow. Some are skipping ahead, some are hiking up in the deep snow, and others have no idea. All that is certain is we’ll be scattered again until the next storm or town pulls us together.
I haven’t attached myself to any plan yet but I don’t think I’ll be able to do all of the official trail in the fresh snow since it goes above 8000 feet in elevation.
Pictured: The mayor, a snowy easter at Idyllwild Community Church, and Steve hugging Kelsey. Steve is the kindest Idyllwild local who frequently gave rides and brought pie and pizza to some hikers. He makes some killer pancakes that I got to have after the Easter service. We wrote him a thank you letter the last night in town!
After this week, I’ve given up most concern about having a “continuous footpath” on trail. I want to see as much as I can of the PCT within 2024, but I am content with doing some sections in the wrong order. If I have to drive down later to hike the parts I missed this week, I’m okay with that. Flexibility has been hard to adopt but it’s essential. After all, the perfect continuous hike is just a temporary bragging right among other thru-hikers and probably won’t matter to me later on.
After I get this snowy stretch sorted out, I have the Whitewater Preserve coming up and then a climb into Big Bear where the trail will take me west toward home:)