Day 10
The wind rattled the camper most of the night, but all 3 of us slept soundly and at 5am, we woke up to a wet and windy morning. Anna and I said goodbye to Felix, and then hit the trail, eager to get to Paradise Valley Cafe and Idyllwild. Initially, we were just socked in by clouds, but that quickly turned to howling wind and cold rain. Since we had a considerable amount of climbing to knock out, I was too warm to wear my rain gear so I ended up getting soaked. We trudged on, and my feet continued to be more and more in pain. This continued on for hours until we finally arrived at our final downhill down to Highway 74 where we stopped to chat with the Chief of a Cal Fire crew who were out doing a training hike.
Afterwards, we quickly crushed the mile or so to the famed Paradise Valley Cafe. I was soaked and sunburned, but we were excited for town food! Unfortunately we had arrived right at 11am, which was 15min too late to order breakfast. That being said, we ended up having an excellent lunch before grabbing our microspikes and ice axes, and heading into town via a hitch.
Once in town, we took care of laundry, showering, and treated our wounds. Anna and I then headed over to the local outfitter, Nomad Ventures, where I swapped shoes and we reupped on a few pieces of gear. The awesome staff there gave us a briefing on Mt. San Jacinto, and then we headed to our room. After a quick reckoning of our food, we went to Idyllwild Brewpub for dinner and then resupplied at the local grocery store. Unfortunately we haven’t seen Mayor Max yet, but it feels wonderful to be clean and out of the wind and rain!
Day 11
We woke up bright and early and noticed that our thermostat had kicked on the fireplace over the night. I guess it got cold out! We weren’t sure what our plan was, so we packed up and headed to breakfast at the Red Kettle. While there we met up with Timber and Delicate Flower whom we had met yesterday hitching in from Paradise Valley Cafe. After breakfast, we packed up and checked out, and then headed to the gearshop to replace Anna’s trekking pole tips. From there, we went to the State Park and finally got our hang tags!
Still undecided about what to do, we polled the rangers and they said we would be fine, so we headed out. It took us longer than usual to get a hitch, but eventually a local named Kathleen was kind enough to give us a ride back to the trailhead!
The hike itself was really enjoyable, despite the sporadic patches of sleet. The landscape was very pretty, and we enjoyed the little pockets of pines and oaks along the way. Between our late start and our fear of finding a spot out of the high wind, we only hiked 8mi today, camping at mile 159.7. Our site seems to be pretty sheltered but man is it cold! Fingers crossed the weather eases up and our next two days are enjoyable!
Day 12
I was incredibly thankful that we had spent the time to get a good tent site and pitch last night as the wind and snow woke me up early this morning, but the wind hardly touched our tent. After a quick packup, we hit the trail, anticipating crummy conditions. Right off the bat, we rounded a rock slab and got pummeled by gale force winds and sleet. This, along with slowly trudging uphill, appeared to be the theme of the morning, as we were buffeted by the wind every time the west was open towards us. We passed a few other hikers, but everyone largely looked as miserable as us haha.
Once we started the climb up Spitler Peak and Apache Peak, I could really feel the altitude turning my legs into lead. At the top of the Apache Spring junction, we ran into some other hikers and banded together for the sketchy section coming down off of Apache. The postholes/bootpack had largely filled in with new snow, so we had to spike up and take it slowly. Thankfully, there were only 3 bad sections that were maybe each 20ft long at most. From there, everyone kind of split up and we trudged along the long downhill.
Once we turned uphill again for the last time today, it quickly turned into a slog with downed trees, rockslides, and 3 more sketchy patched of snow to navigate. Eventually, we reached our chosen campsite at mile 175.4 and set the tent up against a boulder. As we were pitching the tent, gale force winds and white snow once again hit us, making it all the more tricky to get a perfect pitch in a less than stellar site. After getting the tent all guyed out, I collected branches to try and better shield the tent from swirling winds that were hitting one side. Lucas and Leah, who were tenting behind another boulder, cracked jokes with me while we both struggled to erect wind barriers. Type 2 fun I guess! Finally happy with my job, I retreated into the tent which Anna had been busy setting up. It’s cold as hell and I cannot wait to get off this damned mountain haha. 15.7 miles by trail today and the most vert of the hike so far at 4,630ft up and 2,700ft down.
Day 13
Today was a rough one. After getting very little sleep from the blizzard outside, we woke up later than normal to our tent covered in snow. Not sure what to expect, we quickly hit the trail and found it buried in snow. 0.3 miles in, we ran into a long section of high angle frozen snow with dire consequences if you slipped. I used my axe to try to start cutting trail but it was frozen solid. Defeated, we walked back a bit where we ran into Lucas and Leah and relayed the news. We decided to wait for the sun to soften the snow a bit before trying again. Around 9am, the snow had finally started to soften up, so we took turns cutting the trail out until it was finally passable. By this time, Steel Magnolia had caught up so she joined us to wait and traverse the section together. From there, we had another mile or so of semi frozen high angle snow, but the consequences weren’t bad so we pushed on through. Right as we were rolling up to the spring for water, Masochist from the AT appeared seemingly out of thin air. We traded a few words before he hurried on. Delicate Flower and Finn also showed up right as we were heading on.
Anna and I then hiked the rest of the day solo. The terrain was much more easygoing although we did have to slog through soft snow at altitude. We threw in the towel a little past 4pm at Strawberry Tent Campsite at mile 183.3 after having gone only 7.9 miles over 10ish hours of work. It is snowing quite heavily as I write this but we’re tucked into our cold damp tent. I’m sad we won’t be summiting due to the weather but I am stoked to get down to warmer weather tomorrow! I’m also happy with the camaraderie our little group had today in safely overcoming a tough situation!
Day 14
Thankfully, the wind abated last night, but we ended up getting absolutely buried in snow along with frigid temperatures. We woke up to frozen shoes and water bottles and decided on the spot to skip the summit due to the weather. After our slow packup, we headed out and right away struggled with the snowed out and frozen trail. The bootpack seemed to go all over the place as well, making it hard to follow. For the next 6 hours we barely cranked out 6 miles until we blissfully got below the snow line around mile 190. There, we took a break to dry out the tent, pads, and quilts while we had some tea. We were also incredibly dehydrated since our water had been frozen solid for the last 6 hours.
Once everything was dry, we packed up and hit the now snow-free trail! The landscape very quickly changed from alpine forest to the familiar desert, and we were able to crush another 11ish miles in only a few hours. Due to the long day, we were starting to flag so we set up the tent on a sloped site at mile 200.5 meaning we did 17.2 miles today! We’re tenting next to Delicate Flower again and we have an amazing view of I-10 and a wind farm outside of Palm Springs. Absolutely stoked for our nero tomorrow!
Day 15
I woke up cranky from our sloped tent site, but also eager to hike since it was nero day! Fearful of a hot day, we set out just after 5:30am and quickly cruised down the 9.1 miles to town. Along the way we met some trail maintainers and a local group of retired ladies out for a weekend hike. At the bottom of the hill we watched trains go by as wind turbines spun lazily in the distance. Eventually, we crossed under the I-10 bridge, made a few turns, and arrived at Kristin’s house, a host that Anna had found through Far Out.
Right away, we got situated in our room, cleaned up, and laundered. Kristin and her son were incredibly kind, making us feel right at home from the moment we stepped inside. They also graciously drove us into town so that we could resupply and grab some Raising Canes to gorge ourselves on. Anna and I caught up on some trail chores and overall had a pretty lazy day just hanging out with our hosts and fellow hikers. We also learned that apparently a significant portion of the trail ahead is heavily washed out so that should be fun… I think it’s safe to say that we have hiker hunger as Anna and I each crushed a Caniac, half of a large pizza, and half of a large In-n-Out shake… It feels great to be off of our feet for a bit as I feel incredibly beat up from the last section.
Day 16
Man, it is so nice to sleep in cozy, flat, level bed! Anna and I both slept in a little bit before scrounging up some breakfast from the food that other hikers had left. It seemed like most of the other hikers at Kristin’s place had rolled out early with the exception of us, Steel Magnolia and Oz. Oz was getting off trail so Kristin had offered to take him over to see Joshua Tree national park in which case we would take a zero to go with them, but they decided to push it back a day. Anna and I then forced ourselves to pack up and hit the trail before the day became too hot.
As we climbed up around the Mesa Windfarm, it was quite hot, mainly due to the lack of shade and wind. We were however rewarded with gorgeous views of Mt. San Jacinto behind us. A few miles in, we stopped in the sparse shade of a shrub and Delicate Flower jogged up to us and chatted. He had stayed at Mitsy’s (another trail angel in the area) and he was slack-packing the section, hence why he was headed southbound. We caught up with him and finally remembered to trade contact details before we each moved on. We then hit the main climb for the day, which was pretty sweaty but not too hateful. At the top, we ran into Fuji and Archive who we had met at Kristin’s place. They were doing the next section with their son and his scout troop which is pretty awesome! We passed by them and were rewarded with gorgeous views of the Whitewater River Preserve below surrounded by towering mountains. The next few miles breezed by as we cruised down to the Whitewater Preserve’s park/office area. In contrast to the shadeless desert, the office area was an oasis full of wading pools, large trees, and lush grass. We took advantage of the cold pools to soak our feet and then set up early for an easy day at mile 218.5, albeit a little bit off trail. Steel Magnolia rolled in a bit later and we all had dinner together again as well! Total trail mileage, 9.6.
Day 17
To avoid the intense heat of yesterday and in anticipation of a rough day today, we woke up at 5am like we used to pre-San Jacinto. We had a bit of a slowish rollout though because I wanted to take advantage of modern plumbing and because Anna was feeling a tad under the weather. Still, we hit the trail around 6am, stiff but eager to make some miles today. A few miles in we passed Fuji, Archive, and their Scout Troop on the banks of the Whitewater River. The river crossing itself was a nonevent, and I was able to keep my shoes dry by hopping over it.
From there, we huffed and puffed up our two steepest climbs for the day with a short stop for breakfast and water. At some point on the first climb, the sun came over the mountain crest and blasted us with heat. Anna really wasn’t feeling great, but we had made good time on the first 7ish miles. From there on there was a trail closure so we had to just follow Mission Creek (which is more of a river) upstream for 7 miles and a few thousand feet of elevantion. A few years back a tropical storm had flooded the catchment area causing the river to swell and take out the trail, hence the closure. Now it was 4ft at it’s widest but meandered in the middle of a wide silt and rock pan with little shade.
To put it plainly, the unofficial “reroute” sucked. It was hot as hell with very little shade. The terrain was either overgrown, soft sand, or sharp rocks the whole way. We also had to constantly hop across the river or scramble over suburban sized boulders. Then at the end, we had to scramble up a 12ft wall made of loose dirt and rocks, which was a tad sketchy. The one redeeming element were the gorgeous folds and waves on the metamorphic canyon walls which had been polished smooth by the flood. We called it a day at mile 235.5 having done 16.9 trail miles for the day and just under 5000ft of climbing. We will definitely think twice about future unofficial reroutes.
Day 18
When the alarm went off at 5am, we were both still a bit sore from the rocks in the riverbed but eager to knock out our biggest climb before it got hot. We hit the trail, and after an initial climb we quickly figured out that we were not totally out of the woods on the reroute. We continued to run into washed out gully after gully forcing us to have to route-find a bit and scramble over boulders. After a bit, we stopped to load up on water for the day since the next 17 miles were bone dry. While we filtered, the sun caught up with us and illuminated that the next section of trail was considerably more bombed out than what we had already encountered this morning. We then had to do a bit more scaling and routefinding until we were finally out of it. All in all, we hadn’t made much progress and it had eaten up most of our morning. Blissfully, once we finished the climb we were rewarded with some beautiful cushy trail that only had the occasional sketchy angled snow bank, but we were still able to put down miles. Around noon, we stopped off near Coon Creek Cabin and had lunch with a few hikers.
From then on, Anna and I were able crush the rest of the miles, jockeying for position with Lone Pine who was heading into Big Bear for the night. At some point the slope got easier, our feet became numb, and we just cruised along. We decided to camp at Arrastre Trail Camp (mile 256.2) along with several other hikers, one of whom built a lovely campfire. 20.7 miles for the day and we’re excited to arrive in Big Bear tomorrow!
Day 19
The night ended up being much colder than we thought it would be, so I was glad that we had cautiously slept with the water filter. Despite the cold, we were eager for our zero, so we quickly hoofed the relatively flat 10mi to the road crossing at Highway 18 (trail mile 266.1) where we immediately got a ride into town. From there, we had breakfast at the Grizzly Manor Cafe in Big Bear. I ordered the “Polar Bear” special which came with two pancakes which were larger than my head! While there, Sour Patch (SP), a friend of mine from the AT arrived and joined us for brunch!
After brunch and catching up, we went to their family’s house in town to get cleaned up and do laundry. From there we went out to run some errands around town and I finally was able to replace my hole-filled shorts and underwear! We also went out for Himalayan food where we saw the other hikers we had met at our campsite last night. Post dinner, we caught up with Sour Patch and stayed up late chatting before heading to our comfy bed. I am incredibly thankful to SP and their family for spoiling us!
