April 21st, 2022 by Jon
Around 1:00 am last night the wind picked up and it was like sleeping in a sand blaster. It got into our tent, covering our faces, sleeping bags, pillows, literally everything. It was pretty brutal. From then on, Ajia and I both slept fitfully, trying our best to weather the literal storm we were in. We had made the decision last night to sleep in because we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 3:00 anyway. Nicole was kind enough to let us use some of her cooking fuel to make oatmeal, and in return, we gave her some coffee.
We began our hike amid heavy winds that threatened to push us over at times. We had an extremely steep climb over 5 miles, where we would hike to the very top of the mountain we were on and make our way, mountain to mountain, towards San Jacinto. It would be no easy task.
Much of the morning we spent energy we barely recovered overnight forcing ourselves higher and higher, we climbed over many blown down trees, rockslides, and battled a ferocious wind. At times, there was even snow on the side of the mountain and the trail itself. There were moments of today’s hike that were fairly hairy as we attempted to balance on small rocky outcroppings with the wind moving around us. It felt like only a mountain goat should be out doing what we were doing.
Eventually, we made it to the top of the climb, and we entered a wonderful pine-filled valley. The trees filled my view, and the trail was covered in pine needles. The trail loped along lazily over small hills as we moved towards the other side, where there was supposed to be a creek running. I would say a solid 10-15% of the trail was covered in snow. It was still pretty easy to traverse, though, because so many hikers had already made footsteps through the snow patches. This was probably my favorite part of trail so far. It just smelled earthy and wonderful.
When I got to the creek, the hiker group we camped with last night was already there and also included Goose and Sonic, a mother and 7-year-old son who were thru hiking too. I had just heard of them and was impressed with their mileage so far. The water itself was ice-cold and fairly easy to collect. I only needed about a liter because we had 2 miles of hiking left to hit the side trail (Devil’s Slide trail) that would take us an additional 2.7 miles down into the town of Idyllwild.
Ajia showed up shortly after that, and so did Wilco, the other male nurse out on trail whom I have enjoyed talking with. The 4 of us left the creek with Nicole out in front, and we decided to take an alternate route through Tahquitz Valley instead of the peak because the trail would keep us in this patch of forest. Frankly, it was also easier because it didn’t take us up another mountain and come immediately back down. None of us had the energy for it. The surrounding meadow that the trail took us through was filled with long grasses and more pine trees. Small snow patches were visible, and the wind didn’t seem to pass through here. It was a very pleasant couple of miles hiking.
We made it to Saddle Junction, where we could take the Devil’s Slide trail down to town. Before we got down there, we called a local trail angel named Grumpy to see if he could come get us from the trailhead. He said he could and plans were made to have him pick us up in about an hour and a half. Feeling ready for town food and a shower, we booked it down the hill. The trail was very steep; we lost 1,600 feet of elevation over 2.7 miles. On our way down through, we met Emma and Pinwheel, who were visiting from Austin Texas, driving around this area providing trail magic! They were climbing Devil’s Slide with backpacks full of candy, fruit, snacks, and drinks. They offered us tons of it, and we certainly took some. I had a Powerade and peanut m&ms and they tasted so good. We thanked them a lot and I continue to be amazed at the generosity of the hiker community.
We continued our way down and finally reached the trailhead. After a brief waiting period, Grumpy rolled up in his Subaru and let out a hike at the trail and waved us over. Soon we were on our way down into town and he dropped Wilco off at a small inn near the center of town. Our Airbnb wouldn’t be ready for another 2 hours so we walked over to the pizza place in town and Nicole, Ajia, and I all grabbed some beer and a large pizza to share. This pizza place seemed to attract a lot of hikers and the staff were happy to chat everyone. After we began eating, we saw Jason and Mary, who we had hiked out of Warner Springs with. We also saw Woods, Reroute, Don, and Jenna, who we had seen earlier today at the creek. Everyone was enjoying pizza and our happiness level was off the charts. The last stretch was hard with all the elevation and wind and we were all very thankful to be in town.
Once we finished eating and we were in a coma, we had the unfortunate task of hiking up the 1.1 miles to our Airbnb with our packs on. We got about 4-5 blocks up the hill when Scott drove by us, slowed down and turned down his music so he could ask if we wanted a ride up the hill. We must have had that “I’m really tired and this sucks” look on our face or something but that guy was awesome. He drove us right to our place and asked tons of questions about the PCT which he hadn’t ever heard of before. His kindness was super appreciated!
Our cabin is older and a bit antique-y, but it’s comfortable and warm. We all took showers and then spread out our stuff everywhere. We cleaned some of our dirty cooking items and rinsed a couple of pieces of clothing in the sink. We plan to do a load of laundry tomorrow at the laundromat in town. We all sat around on our phones for a bit, catching up on the world and talking with family. I completely lose any concept of time while hiking so it’s always a little jarring when we get back into town.
There were a bunch of hikers who were planning on going to the brewpub tonight for dinner so we started walking down to town around 6:15. We threw out our thumbs with every passing car, and to our amazement, the third one pulled over! We piled in and Mo introduced herself as an avid hiker and resident of Idyllwild. She is used to PCT hikers and gives rides pretty often. She drove us all the way down into town and before we got out, she gave us her number and told us to text her if we needed rides later. Super nice of her!
We walked over to the grocery store and grabbed a few things to make food while we were staying in town. We will come back tomorrow to do our actual resupply, but we kinda need to figure out a few details first, and we haven’t done that yet. After our grocery run, we walked over to the brewpub and grabbed a table. We had beer and dinner but we didn’t recognize anyone that we knew yet. Around 7:30 they all arrived and apparently we missed the memo that it would be a little later. But that’s totally fine, we visited for a while before being able to leave because our bill was already separate. Nearly everyone was zeroing in town tomorrow like us with the weather that was coming in, so we would see them around.
We texted Mo about a ride, but she had already told us she might be asleep, so we walked back up the hill to our place. It was about 20-25 minutes which really wasn’t too bad. We drank some wine and hot cocoa and watched the first half of Fellowship of the Ring, which Nicole had never seen before. Eventually, we got tired, and by 11:00, we all went to bed.
We have no hiking to do tomorrow, it’s our first real zero day for all of us and we are very excited about it.
