Nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains, Idyllwild is a small town where Pacific Crest Trail hikers like my self stop to resupply around mile 170. Idyllwild is a beautiful town surrounded by towering pine trees and granite peaks. It also has great food, friendly locals, a laid back atmosphere and an awesome golden retriever Mayor.
People like me roll into town either by hiking the Devils Slide Trail or getting a hitch in from the highway. I caught a hitch in from the highway by Blueprint, once I got into town my first stop was the outfitters. I needed to get a new water filter after I suspect mine has frozen. Rule of thumb, frozen filters are compromised. You’ll get sick using a compromised filter.
After talking with the people in the shop we got good intel about Mt San Jacinto. We will have to game plan tonight at dinner. Although we’ve mostly been hiking alone and then camping near each other at night, Mt San Jacinto is a team sport. A section where you really can mess up quickly and die. But before we plan, let’s enjoy the day in Idyllwild.
Idyllwild is a great spot to rest up, I’m staying at the beautiful Idyllwild inn in a cabin with Seven and we hope to meet the iconic Mayor Max.
Lisa at the front desk offered to do a load of laundry for us, she could def smell us as we walked in. It feels good to have clean clothes again after I don’t know 70 miles?
Once we get the call from Lisa that our clothes are done in the laundry we get dressed and go exploring. I hit the post office to mail some post cards and then grab some food from the market. Prices in California still shock me. I’m honestly not a cheap person at all, especially being from Boston but I’ve been blown away so far.
We have no set plans in town besides for errands, resting and fueling back up. Seven and I find some cool sites as we walk through the small town and tonight we get to pick what’s for dinner.
Pizza it is!
Right outside the hotel are some cool shops and an arcade. We walk the small town and see what the place has to offer, as we walk further we see more hikers hobble in. It’s a few familiar faces, we see Craig and Renaissance from the night before a few hours later, glad y’all made it!
We meet a few more hikers at the Idyllwild Pizza place and grab a pitcher of beer and some grub. Seven sees a vintage Pac-Man machine in the corner and decides to make a run for the high score. Me fully encouraging it giggles and says “man it’s a Tuesday and instead of work I’m sitting here watching my buddy play Pac-Man as we drink beer and eat pizza” life is good.
As we swap stories we talk about the night priors weather. The hiker at the bar said he was heading up the mountain at 4PM and got blown off by high winds and ran down at night. Search and rescue had to save three other hikers from hypothermia in the middle of the night. it’s honestly much colder than I expected out here. Especially at high elevation.
We start to brainstorm a game plan for tomorrow, Wolf’s phone goes off and they get a message that their resupply box and ice axe is now delayed also. We both got screwed by UPS on this one. Our plans now change again.
UPS you are straight up rubbish.
I toss the idea out that we can get dropped off back at trail and then slack pack the 13 miles up trail just before San Jacinto and get our packages afterwards. It’s not ideal as we wanted to summit a day sooner, but it maintains our continuous northbound thru hike, lets us get mileage in tomorrow and even lets us have to do less mileage per day over the next week. We settle on that plan and line up our ride to the trail head.
After a few hours of sleep and hanging around all morning we head for the trail head at 11AM, we’re heading up the ridge up to 7,000’ and then hanging a left down Cedar Springs back down to a different parking lot. 3,300’ elevation gain over 14.5 miles.
Starting mid day I am behind the curve, but I also know my legs will crush the mileage once I start going, as I get the first few miles under my belt I go from desert into pine forest again.
Wow these pine trees are gorgeous, as I continue to climb I can see Palm Springs in the distance beneath us. I’ve never been to Palm Springs but Seven and I discuss maybe going and playing a round of golf there.
After turning back towards the left I notice the ridge looks familiar to me. it reminds me of Franconia Ridge, not as beautiful or green in my opinion but still pretty! A little reminder of home and where I usually hike puts a smile on my face. It also reminds me I plan to get my annual Pemi loop done in September when I get home.
After summiting the ridge line and making it to the trail junction I hang a left, it’s two and a half miles down windy switch backs to the road way where our hitch is heading. I text him as we make the left turn and tell him 4PM arrival…. So we are really pushing it. On the way down Seven and I stop for a quick break, we chat, make jokes, and sing songs. He tells me he woke up with the US National Anthem stuck in his head.
I clown him and tell him there’s still hope for him as a Canadian. The longer he’s in America I’ll rub off on him, but only the good American traits though not the bad.
As I continue to crush the down hill it’s a full jog at this point. I pick my head up and see three deer staring at me from trail. I tell them they’re alright mate and they don’t need to move. I for some reason become Australian when I speak to wild animals. They quietly jumped over the fence and hid in the land that says “Posted- No Hunting.” Those were the first deer I’ve seen since I’ve been on trail. I love seeing animals out here.
I make it to road side first and see our ride. Exchange hellos and wait for the others, after the others arrive it’s a twenty minute ride back to town and I’m thinking about crushing another pizza this time BBQ chicken.
I let Seven get shotgun, I want to see if I get car sick today, I have a theory that after I’m tired and hiked all day I just dgaf. In the car ride back I assess my body, today’s the first day I feel a little off. Besides for rolling my ankle today, my body’s finally sore from my cactus fall the other day and on top of that my Oura ring is telling me my body temp, my heart rate and my breathing are all abnormal from my baseline. The last two I contribute to the altitude otherwise🤞🏼 I’m not getting sick!
Vitamins vitamins vitamins!
We get to town and hit the brew pub as a foursome. A round of beers and some championship winning fries, the pubs an awesome spot with great decor. The service tonight however is lacking, Wolf orders their last drink and it never arrives, bummer, we pay our bill and head out. The waitress didn’t charge me for my Sprite. Gracias
After dinner we head back to our cabin number 15 and chill for the night around the fire place. After Seven fails to light a good fire we swap stories and plan out our ascent for tomorrow, rough plan, breakfast at the diner at 8:15AM, head to Paradise Valley Cafe at 11AM to get our delayed packages then get dropped off at the trail head we got picked up at yesterday. This section starts our first real climb and I think the other two are more excited for it than I am.
The Pacific Crest Trail 