The Adventures of...: Days 11-12

Day 11, 5 miles, endpoint PCT mile 179.5

We purposefully hung around Idyllwild for most of the day today, taking care of last minute errands and waiting on a package Josh was expecting. It was hard to leave, but we spent quite awhile there already; staying another night would have been a waste of time and money. Late afternoon we headed north out of town and wound our way uphill through some residential streets, past log cabins and A-frame style homes, towards Huber Park, the location of our trailhead. The PCT does not connect directly to Idyllwild; instead we took a trail called the Devil's Slide up to meet with the PCT some 2-3 miles in.

The Devil's Slide took us up another 2,000 feet, and my pack, newly loaded with food from the grocery store, felt like a bag of lead. Luckily we weren't going far, just enough to get us to the saddle and out of town. Right now we are camped in a somewhat protected area while a windstorm is raging. We are hoping the winds die down tomorrow, as the summit of Mt. San Jacinto, at 10,800 feet, is an easy side trip from our location. As long as we don't blow away, that will be the plan for tomorrow.

The road out of town was steep. About a 1500 ft climb to the trail head itself.

Add San Jacinto Wilderness to Carla's wilderness collection.

This downed log was trickier than most.

Views on the way up.

First snow of the trip.

Views from near camp at about 8,100 ft.

Day 12, 15 miles, endpoint PCT mile 192.6

We woke up this morning and the winds were going full force, but the tent was still standing and no trees had fallen on us overnight, so we were good to go. We immediately started climbing, and eventually left the PCT for a side trip to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto, one of the highest peaks in Southern California at 10,800 feet in elevation. It wasn't long before we began seeing snow on the ground; snow would periodically cover the trail for most of our hiking today. The summit was incredible, with 360 degree views. The only drawback: the gale force winds that were in overdrive that high up. We could only stay for so long before the wind and the cold temperatures got to us. We scrambled back down, stopping at an historic shelter near the summit on the way.

We continued on our alternate route before finally joining up with the PCT again; home, sweet home. I know I have said this before, but the scenery today was the best yet. Holy epic mountain hiking. We filled up waters at mile 186, then entered another 20 mile waterless stretch, which we are still in the middle of (our packs are nicely loaded up with enough heavy water to get us through). Our day ended when we found a great campsite with city views--strange, I know. Interstate 10 is running along thousands of feet below our tent. At night, from this high up, it looks like a sparkling stream with shimmering lights on all sides. Tomorrow we will actually cross I-10. We will also hit the 200 mile mark!