Week 2: Julian to Idyllwild

Day 8

We woke up at the Julian Hotel and had a multicourse breakfast that was bigger than any breakfast we'd eaten so far. Much more elaborate than our cheapo granola bars.

The staff of the Julian Hotel was so awesome, especially Radne, who did our laundry in the morning and washed our cook pot, bowls, and cups. We had never seen our cookware so sparkly clean!

We got a ride outta town from Ed, a local that's lived in the area for over 40 years. He mentioned that he was surprised about all of the out of town travelers that didn't know anything about the drastic changes in desert temperatures with the sizzling hot days and the icy cold nights.

Ed dropped us off at Scissors Crossing. There were two other hikers at the dropoff point, one with beer in her backpack! Yikes, too heavy! It was an 80° hot desert kinda day. That was the last time we saw the two of them all day. We leapfrogged with a lot of different people yesterday. It was a very windy day and the majority of the trail was extremely narrow.

We camped at the third gate water cache around mile 91. There were so many people; there had to have been more than 25 other hikers camped there. One of the hikers was a guy named Joe who worked at the Portland REI who sold us most of our gear, it was pretty funny to run into him here after our checkout line small talk.

Easy made the best dinner yet tonight with spicy ramen and garlic mashed potato mix. Woweeeee that was incredible! I took a picture but it looks like orange slop, so I'll spare you the image.

Day 9

Miles 91-110, 19 miles

We woke up at sunrise to hike towards Warner Springs. Our morning hike led us to a small cave, a frozen snake halfway blocking our path, and then the 100 mile mark not long after.

After our descent, we sat down by the water source for coffee and what we're calling "tuna taquitos." Then we decided to press on with caffeine and protein fueling our steps.

We walked through big fields and small narrow pathways in the afternoon. The purplish red grass in the big fields was blowing so strongly that it looked like an ocean. There were small orange poppies peeking through the purple grass. I couldn't help but sing songs from The Wizard of Oz as we went on our way.

My right ankle started to hurt near Eagle Rock but we kept going.

We met up with a lot of "old friends" at the Warner Springs Resource Center charging their phones and enjoying the indoors. It was staffed by extremely friendly volunteers who were selling showers and snacks and offering free access to a small library of books.

We went to the Warner Springs resort grille to get ribeye steak and meat lovers pizza and a couple of beers. Food tastes amazing after a long day of hiking. We wanted to hang out with the other hikers back at camp but we both felt really tired.

Day 10

Hiked over 15 miles today.

We woke up at Warner Springs and went back to the resort grille for a delicious breakfast (a breakfast burrito for Easy and French toast and bacon for yours truly). After eating, we went to the post office to pickup our packages from our Moms. Thank you Moms!

We tried hitching back to the trail, but didn't have any luck.

This section was beautiful -there were about 8 creek crossings. Our friend "Hiker Box" saw a bobcat at one point. I did see one frog when I was filling up one of our water bottles at the creek. Before filtering of course!

My ankle was hurting today but the beauty of the day helped me power through! It's been neat to recognize the slight elevation changes on familiar flowers. The Indian paintbrush is stunning, and very different at various elevations and climates.

Our campsite had a lovely view of the sunset. Easy made two of the new meals from his mom. They looked so good we cooked dinner too much food!

I was spooked by critters again and unfortunately I didn't get much sleep on my new sleeping pad from my mom. We shouldn't have left our food outside when we went to bed. It was probably only attracting small animals (like moths and rabbits), but of course when you're the only one awake in a tent, any critter noise can make you (well, me) nervous.

Day 11

 We hiked over 15 miles today.

We woke up at 5 am and made the trek to "Mike's Place" / water cache. Handwritten signage encouraged hikers to stay for food and to make a donation for the upkeep of the water cache. We put $5 in the small donation box, filled up all of our bottles of water and took a snack and rest break.

Easy made me a wildflower corsage during the morning hike since he knew I didn't sleep well. It was so sweet. I took a picture and tucked it into my shirt pocket.

We saw three other couples on the break. One was definitely having a tense moment. Hiking with your partner can be hard at times. Being alone with someone else for 24 hours a day is not something most people are used to. I've been surprised by how often we hike together and don't talk at all. That's actually more common than having a conversation while walking. There are many stretches where holding a conversation is just too much extra work. Some people say "careful" when their partner trips on a rock. Some say "you okay?" Every interaction is an opportunity to treat your companion the way you want to treat them or the way they want you to treat them. I'm learning that the two aren't always the same.

After some rest and snacks in the shade, we headed up Bucksnort (!) Mountain. Not much shade but the incline wasn't too steep. Pretty cool terrain up here. It's very green with a lot of sharp and crooked burned trees.

We were happy to find a nice campsite. Before we ate dinner, I started feeling more worried about my ankle and began to get more frustrated that I'm not good at this. I'm not particularly fast, I'm not always super duper positive, I'm not the rock hard Colorado gal some might've imagined, and critters give me major anxiety at night in the tent. It can be scary to think that this adventure puts all of my eggs are in one basket and if I were to get injured there is no job or apartment that I can go back to. Another piece that can be tough is that I'm very social. It's hard to hike all day and say maybe 50 words to each other. It seems like solo hikers are better at making new hiker friends than couples or groups. I hope that Easy and I continue to make friends with more hikers (and of course I'm hoping to get a great trail name)! There is a bet among friends about what trail name will be... And Easy isn't allowed to influence it!

Day 12

18 miles

We woke up early to hit the trail. My ankle was sore in the morning. We went two miles very quickly. Easy went down to the water tank while I took my glasses off and put my contacts in. Finding a great rock to sit on was key!

We went into two different canyons today. It was super hot with almost no shade. The flowers were amazing. By some miracle, the flowers were all dressed in their best Easter colors - lots of whites, yellows and purples!! We saw a day hiker with no water on him - we kinda thought we may run across his dehydrated body at some point it was so hot out. We did see him again in his way back - still alive, smiling and sweating through what looked like sunblock that didn't get rubbed in completely.

We got to a water cache just before noon with signage that said "Easter dinner free for hikers, 2 miles." I was picturing some religious evangelicals cooking hot dogs out of the back of a truck. Maybe some sodas in a cooler. This 2 mile stretch was so exciting because we never knew what we'd find. Mouth-watering food anticipation on the trail is a very real thing.

What was waiting for us at Mile 145 was exponentially better than I could've ever imagined. We were greeted, given water and soap to wash our hands with, and then led to a table with a beautiful white tablecloth to sit down and get ready to eat. We were handed laminated menus and told we could choose any of the three meal options. Mary, the Mile 145 Trail Angel, was our Chef Extraordinaire (and the one who put everything together). The first meal option was ribeye steak the second was pork tenderloin. The third was a vegan option. Each menu item had suggested wine pairing on it, no joke. And not only that, there was also a dessert menu with three options as well. They had red wine, white wine, rosé, a mango juice and elderberry nectar water with fresh mint -all of the choices were incredible.

We met a terrific couple from Carlsbad, CA that had recently bought nearby property. We swapped stories of our hiking adventures and in just a couple of hours, we made new friends. It was one of the most generous and unexpected holiday meals I've ever experienced and probably will ever experience. An Easter we'll never forget. And it wasn't lost on me that just the day before I had felt like my pace was too slow and weak - I realized today that I was right on time, and perfectly strong enough to make it to our Easter dinner with our new friends.

I had the ribeye steak with potatoes and green beans. Easy had the pork tenderloin with quinoa and asparagus. We both had a glass of white wine and I tried a glass of one local's rosé. Mary even came around after our meals with Vietnamese iced coffee - I think I had 3 cups!! I just kept saying yes to everything.

After the delicious food and the easy flowing conversation with our new pals Mike and Princess S, it was super hard to leave! But we knew we had to press on if we were going to make it to the highway near Idyllwild.

A couple of miles before the end of the day, my ankle started hurting very bad. I could barely put any weight on it. It was painful but it was starting to get dark and I wanted to make it to Paradise Cafe or Idyllwild.

We hitched into Idyllwild with another PCT hiker with a big van, "Doctor Tim," and camped at the San Jacinto campground with a few hiker pals. It was great to see familiar faces at the campground.

Day 13

We woke up and went to the Red Kettle Cafe for breakfast. The food was good but the coffee left us feeling a bit underwhelmed. The staff was incredibly friendly.

We were so happy to swap our tent for a room at the Silver Pines Lodge. Both in need of showers and a bed!! We walked around town and had lunch, went hat shopping (well I did), and got our Polaroid picture up at The Idyllwild Pizza Company (the pic is in my photo gallery). Then we did our laundry and relaxed a bit.

We met up with a big group of hikers back at the pizza place and then played bocce ball at the brewery. Everyone wanted to hang out tonight but we were also all really tired. It was pretty funny that we all were ready for bed at 8 o'clock. It was great to laugh together about how sleep is now more important than our social lives.

Day 14

Zero miles!

We decided to check on vacancy at the lodge to stay for another night and we could, so we did!

We had a nice breakfast at Idyllwild Bakery and Brew and then walked around town for a bit. Idyllwild reminds me of a little artistic touristy Colorado town like Ouray or Ridgeway. People are warm and curious about our hike.

We primarily lazed around all day and caught up on random things like correspondence, sleep and TV!

We saw a few hikers around town but were missing our buddies who decided to hike Fuller Ridge today. We're hoping to meet up with some friends who are going to Coachella so we're on a slower pace these next couple of days. We also don't have snow gear yet, so we're happy to take the alternate route.

It felt so good to relax and pick up the items for our resupply box that we somehow forgot when packing (my top two: face wash and lotion)! It's been funny to learn what things I need vs. what Easy needs. He's very happy with a bar of soap and deodorant. Hence his "Easy" trail name!

I was able to find Trail Angel Mary's website and email address today and sent her an email with pictures from the pop-up Easter Dinner. Such a treat to reconnect with her! When I shared that I had been feeling sluggish and disappointed in myself just the day before we stumbled across her miracle meal, Mary's response was this: "I like your way of thinking: often, delays are just what you need to end up in the right place at the right time." She added my pictures to her online blog and wrote a great recap, it's located here.