Idyllwild

This morning I woke up in an actual bed. It was so so nice.

K and I needed to be checked out by 11 so we hurried to the grocery store to get shampoo and conditioner so we could wash our hair before we had to leave the wonderful shower behind. While at the grocery store I found some fruit that I snacked on all morning while running errands.

After the grocery store, I stopped by the post office to send home the charger to my camera that I had already sent home in Warner Springs. I then went to the local outdoor outfiters “nomad ventures” and bought a pair of microspikes for the upcoming snow.

After we had taken our showers and made sure all our gear was in our packs we went to breakfast at the red kettle. All my food experiences in Idyllwild have been on point. This was no exception. When I asked if a potato scramble could be made with avocado instead of eggs the answer was yes! And they didn’t put butter on my toast when I asked. Success!

After being a little side tracked after brunch, K, DB (previously referred to as RB but who’s name has since been clarified) and I got a ride to a trail called Devil’s Slide that would take us to the other side of where the PCT was closed due to fire (in 2013). I got to sit in the back of a pick up again. It was great.

Once at the trail-head the trail went essentially straight up. So for someone with a super small stride on inclines, I usually trail behind my other two comrades. This has been fine for the previous miles K and I have hiked but now that I see the new terrain we are venturing into I have a feeling I won’t be able to keep up for much longer. But we shall see.

I have found that the days right after being in a town are the hardest for me. Maybe this is just because I am only a little over a week into the trail or because when I’m in a town a see more and different people than I do on the trail. I wonder what it would be like if I had not met K and if I had just been hiking alone. How many miles would i be doing? Who would I have met to camp with? What difference would it make in my PCT experience? I know that it has only been a week and there are so many more weeks on the trail I can make my own experiences. If I wanted to be alone I could be alone. My thoughts on that go on a rollercoaster throughout the day about that though. When we are going up and I am really slow I usually think I am holding her back but then I will catch up at some point and my thoughts will turn to how much I enjoy her company and it will continue like that all day. I know it is inevitable that at some point we will part ways but for right now I am making the most of our combined experiences and making the PCT my own.

After a while we made it to some of the snow people were talking about. For the first couple spots we just trudged through it because it was still soft from the heat of the day. A little closer to our aimed for campsite we found ourselves putting our microspikes on just in case. Boy. Do those things make a difference. I can only imagine what crampons do. Anyways. Once we crossed that area we got to the last stream crossing for a few miles so we filled our bladders and continued on. We passed a couple sleeping in the middle of the trail (understandable because it was late and who would think more hikers would be coming by) and then we passed a little campsite that could barely fit K and my tents. DB said the site we were looking for was a little ways ahead still so we passed that one. Not even 20 yards from that site we found ourselves facing snow that was basically covering everything except it had turned into hard snow as the evening temperature dropped. DB started down and found that even he had trouble sinking his feet into the snow to gain traction. I was slightly concerned about my ability to even make a dent considering even with my pack on I weigh about half what he does. I was already having my doubts but after K slid into a tree we all decided to head back to the little flat spot. I set my tent up right before it got dark and was inside by 830 which to me felt like passed midnight I was so tired.

DB apparently found a good spot for his hammock turned tent and we all said goodnight.

Tomorrow we get to have a late morning so that the snow can soften again. Yay! Late also being relative.