Day 15, Fuller ridge and beyond

5/3
Daily mileage: 20

Let's just start this off by saying thank you lovely REI sales rep. At 6:15 in the morning I was able to get REI to send me a new water filter to replace my lost one to our next town stop of Big Bear, plus that is officially the prettiest location I have ever talked to customer service from.
Although on the subject of gear my camera has bowed out already. Silly zoom error, so just iPhone pictures for now.

Now as far as how today went, well it was hard. It may have not been challenging for everyone but it was tough for me.

We all leave camp at different times, but I usually see people pretty quickly bc they are so much faster then me. Not today. After climbing up from saddle junction I hit the first snow. Not to bad, you could pretty much tell where the trail was but it was still slow going.



Then it was back to beautiful trail, with snowmelt streams. All well and good. Then comes Marion Junction (poorly signed I might add) and the snow. Now I'm sure to some it would be obvious but after maybe a quarter mile or so of following possible signs of the trail and the circles other footprints made I sat down and had a small hissy fit. I have practice navigating and have hiked in snow but this was one if the few sections I had actively planned to do with others and yet here I was by myself at 8000 ft on the side of a mountain. Totally by choice, I could have waited, eventually more hikers always appear. After calming down I looked at my maps, actually figured out where I was and walked about 2 ft further and found the trail. More mentally tough than anything. Snow became patchier and after meeting up with the cousins (who had climbed Mt Jacinto as an alternate route, lots of snow and route finding) and another couple took a good snack break and headed towards fuller ridge.



Now for those of you familiar with the the PCT you know Fuller Ridge, but for everyone else out there it's one of the first big snow areas we hit heading north and has a pretty nasty reputation. Plus after the ridge we have to get off the mountain. Simple right? Ha, the person who designed this section has an interesting sense of humor. So here I am anxious about the ridge and I am working my butt off to go in what should just be a straight line to the ridge but instead get intense steep switchbacks down and then straight back up to the top of the ridge. Then there is the ridge itself, I'm not positive but I think it was around 3-4 miles of snow. The trail was very easy to see but was exhausting. No easy sliding downhill here, nope miles of traversing snow. With each step your joints get tweaked and you fight not to slip on some pretty steep sections, not to mention post holing ( when your foot breaks through and you fall way deeper into the snow, I managed as deep as my hip/crotch at least once). Finally done with the snow at close to 2 pm, I had only hiked about 10 miles all day.






So is getting down any easier? Of course not. As the crow flies getting from point A (the top) to point B (the bottom) is 4.5 miles, our trail takes over 15 miles to drop us over 6000 ft to the valley floor. Did I mention that this whole day is being done with heavy packs with 4+ days of food and enough water to dry camp bc there is no water for over 16 miles starting right before all the snow on the ridge?
The plan was to get partway down, camp and finish the descent in the morning. Moss and I started down, and just kept going. At 7pm I was done. We had only passed one or two possible spots and people were already in them. The terrain around the trail was incredibly sloped and overgrown in a few places, and while it was very pretty I was done. I just wanted to stop, I finally gave up and sat down in the middle of the trail. Moss kept going but as I sat and ate and watched the sun set the cousins caught up. We ended up all just sleeping in the middle of the trail. And can I tell you that was one great nights sleep.






Sorry for the long entry, it was a mentally and physically tough day for me.

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Day 14, Town Day!

5/2
PCT mileage: about 5
Other mileage: 5

Thru hikers are funny about mileage on and off the trail during a thru hike. Most thru hikers try not to skip any mileage while on the trail itself, although how strict you are will vary person to person. But the minute you are off the trail they look for any way to avoid extra mileage. It's not like we are lazy, but with over 2600 miles to hike all that extra adds up. Plus hikers almost unilaterally hate walking on roads, go put 40 lbs on your pack and hike on dirt and then try it on pavement with cars screaming past you. Not fun. Which is where hitch hiking comes in. It's actually really common for hikers to get rides into town, especially if the drivers know the trail is in the area. Being rather new to hitch hiking my current rule is never go solo and avoid if possible. We'll see how it goes.

So today was a town day. We camped less than 5 miles from where the devils slide trail connects with the PCT and takes you down to a road which then leads to the amazing town of Idyllwild. We had a slow start with the freezing cold wind but managed to drag ourselves though a few patches of snow and hit the trail to town.






Now the devils slide trail is gorgeous but no joke. In 2.5 miles you drop 1900 ft (and those are non PCT miles) and right when we finally got to the road Bobcat got us a ride within 2 minutes Woohoo (avoiding another 2.5 miles on the road.

Idyllwild is basically a perfect hiker town. Everything is within walking distance, there are welcome PCT hiker signs everywhere and there is a campground, an inn,a supermarket, a natural food store and a library!
If you can be quick and don't mind skipping a few things you can save some cash by doing a nearo on town days. That means going to town and hiking almost no miles. Plus you have an easier morning if you just wake up on the trail rather than try to hitch back up. Many hikers take zeros which is a day with zero hiking.

So it was a whirlwind, eating, gear tweaking, and somehow organizing food for 5 days. The health food store was amazing and let us take over their back porch while we made at least 3 trips to every store figuring out what the heck was needed.



Lost a few of our hiking group to the vortex of town but I am sure that they will catch up soon. We got a ride back up to the trail head super quick but genius that I am I did not check the seat and now have zero ability to treat my water as both my water filter and emergency backup where in the same bag...definitely learned 2 lessons there.
Made the crazy climb back up. Surprised the cousins with fresh veggies, and made an amazing salad. Way better than more junk food in town. We had plans to hike a few miles farther but made it all of 5 minutes before we saw a great sunset and a campsite to good to pass up. And tomorrow is the dreaded fuller ridge...






The pictures don't do it justice, but think sunset in the high mountains over a lake of fog, another amazing day on the PCT.


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Day 13, insanely windy campsite at mile 175

Today was a great day. After days in the desert we actually got to go to the mountains! And they are some amazing mountains.

It's odd what's satisfying out here, but for me just getting out of camp quickly and efficiently is great. The cousins could start their own show they're so good. So after trying a few tricks that they suggested I can now peel out of camp in 10 minutes with minimal fumbling and swearing.
I may leave camp first but I meet people very quickly since half the folks out here are speed demons and all I ever seem to catch is a wave and their backs. So it was fun after only an hour of hiking to have our group run into the Bobcat camped farther up the trail and we stopped and had group snack time.




The climbing today was intense, I think we did over 5000 ft of elevation gain and 2000 ft of loss. But man was it pretty country. Huge trees, soft sandy dirt trail, shade and wind! Too bad all the water was still at least a mile of trail (unless you like sulfur water, I myself am not a fan so I walked the extra half mile for tasty dirt water). Seriously though Fobes saddle had good water, just go for the creek not the trough...



Plus there were chairs in a great little grove if you wanted a break after your water detour.
Hiking with people is different than most trips I've been on. I technically hiked only a few short hours actually talking to someone else but spent hours at water breaks, snack breaks, impromptu snowball fights and camp (sense a theme, we really like our breaks). However you phrase it today I got to chat with a whole lot of great people.









Our map tells us that 21 miles of continuous snow are common starting at mile 169 (where we were today)this was the snow we ran into today...
Got to love a low snow year for that :) hope its stays this good.



Snapper and the 2 guys from the Yukon camped a few miles behind us, Dancing feet pushed on to Idyllwild and the cousins, moss, bobcat, opus, and joe are all camped at mile 175 with me. We had plans to camp at 166 (Apache springs cutoff) but the wind was horrible, didn't escape that one up here either. Once we passed our planned campsite it got a little tricky.


When that's your trail for miles campsites are awfully limited. I can usually find a small spot not on the map but I would prefer not to roll off a ledge in the middle of the night. So here we are, bundled up, and yes there is someone in that sleeping bag.





Biggest difference between these mountains and the ones I'm used to? No chipmunks but lizards everywhere!


Oh and I only seem to make videos on windy ridge tops in bad light but enjoy.

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Day 12, Shady Campsite mile 155 (4/30)

Daily mileage: 16 (plus 1 off trail)

Woke up with paradise cafe as my plan. Headed out solo but the cousins quickly caught up. Great sunrise and cooler morning temps made the first 1000 ft elevation gain a breeze.








Okay it's hard to see but sort of in the middle of the photo there is a small peak, that's where we came down from yesterday afternoon. Lots of rolling hills in this area!

Found a cool water cache, but at 0645 didn't need any extra water so more left for others. There was a hiker book to sign which was fun bc you can see who is near you on the trail.






Climbing started to get tougher and Joe caught up, always fun to hike with new people. We flip flopped for awhile staring at the views, bring scared by a pack of badly behaved dogs and wondered where the heck the trail was actually taking us.



After what felt like forever we saw the highway, which meant food was near! Plus we did the magical 10 by 10, a hiker thing where you hike 10 miles by 10 am. Basically bragging rights and the ability to slack off for the rest of the day. By 10:30 we had gone 13 PCT miles plus one off trail to get to the fabulous cafe.






Hours later, no seriously we didn't leave till 3 we had made friends, had our group catch up, lost some hiker friends to a ride to the nearest town and ate multiple amazing meals. So good.
Quick trip back to the trailhead, afternoon nap and the return of the cousins from idyllwild brought us a few miles closer to the massive climbing we will spend all of tomorrow enjoying.

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Day 11, Nance Canyon (4/29)

We woke up with a goal. There is a cafe called the paradise cafe about a mile off trail at mile 151. We camped at about mile 120. The only tricky business is that the cafe closes early on Monday's at 3 pm and is totally closed on Tuesday's. So since food is one of our main topics of conversation and it is the only 100% sure water source for 33 miles Monday before 3 is a must.

Up and out of camp early as usual to avoid as much of the sun as possible. Some people may like 80+ degree heat but it sure makes hiking tougher. Headed 7 or so miles up and around boulder fields to an amazing trail angel who has a big cistern of water for hikers to use and then a long climb up a ridge line to yet another new view.









Heading down started to get really hot and we stopped and hid from the sun, and ate the best trail snack ever. Fresh fruit!







I have been hiking on and off with a number of people and it's always fun to round a corner and find people you know. Today we got to join the cousins as we hid from the heat of the day by having siesta time. And we only disturbed about a million ants and one giant rattlesnake in the process. Eventually made our way down into nance canyon with actual running water (sometimes way hard to come by out here). About 9 people here tonight, although we expect to meet a whole lot more as the crowd from kickoff starts to catch up!


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Day 10, lost creek spring (4/28)

Kickoff was fun but I was so ready to get back to hiking. Technically the event ends Sunday but it wasn't hard ti convince a few others that it was time to get hiking and we got ourselves a ride back to Warner Springs in the early afternoon.
It felt perfect being back on the trail.







Bobcat and I took off and met a herd of horses, amazing and friendly.
We wound through the valley
and a great creek (what a treat down here in the desert).
An afternoon of climbing up towards the spring, lots of new plants and great views.


Great camp up on a ridge top. Filtered water from a spring, watched the sunset and off to be it is.









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Day 8 and 9, Lake Morena

****sorry about the delay in entries, wifi and cell phones are tricky business in the outdoors****

Kickoff was crazy, over 750 people. Lots of lectures where we were told about upcoming dangers. A bit of an overwhelming experience do decided to leave early on Saturday instead of Sunday.










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