*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 16: April 23, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Idyllwild – 179.4
End: Idyllwild – 179.4
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Building

What a phenomenal zero! I didn’t get to sleep in as much as I wanted to because our lovely cabin has huge windows that let the morning light in. I played on my phone for a while and then finally got up to make some coffee. I went to the post office to pick up my new town dress and camp shoes. The rest of the crew slowly started stirring, and we all decided to venture out for food around 10am.

Barbra, Niamh, and I went to wonder around town for a bit and checked out the local shops before meeting everyone else at the Atomic Cow for lunch. It was a restaurant 100% made for thru hikers! It was just burgers and fires but the portions were HUGE and it was very reasonable priced (especially for CA). I had a pastrami smash burger, tator tots, and a huckleberry shake.

Next we went to the Village Market to gather supplies for a taco night back at our cabin. We meandered over to Nomad Adventures to check out their gear selection and I had to buy a new pair of gaiters because somehow mine ripped in half 🙁

Truffles and I took a side quest to the Idyllwild Gardens to look around at their pretty greenhouse. It reminded me of The Greenhouse store back home, it was adorable! We went back to the cabin and decided to check out the lodge where we discovered a tranquil coy pond in the back. There was a huge pond with waterfalls and frogs and several huge fish! It was so unexpected and so nice, Truffles and I sat out there for a while just relaxing.

Pinky called me once we were back in the cabin to tell us that the mayor of Idyllwild had just arrived! We hurried over to Wooly’s to get in line. Mayor Max III and the vice mayor, Meadow, are two adorable golden retrievers who love pets and posing for pictures. I’m so glad we had our photo op and got some pets in!

Our whole group went back to the house and chilled before starting dinner. Truffles and Hangman cooked tacos and Niamh made mango salsa. While we were all waiting I lead a short yoga practice. Andrew came over for dinner and we all sat down for a lovely family style meal of tacos, rice, and lots of veggies with pitchers of margaritas. It was so delicious and so much fun!

The evening concluded with a karaoke session. Truffles pulled up karaoke videos on YouTube and cast to the TV so we could all have our own songs to sing. We did karaoke until we were all horse and exhausted, I don’t think we went to sleep until almost 11pm (way past hiker midnight!). Such a fun and memorable zero.

Day 17: April 24, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Idyllwild – 179.4
End: Tentsite – 187.5
Miles: 8.1
Ascent: 3626 | Descent: 554
Sleep: Tent

Leaving town is always hard, but today was a fine day. I woke up on the futon in the living room and read for a while before getting up to make coffee. Once the rest of the house was stirring I decided to venture out to the post office to mail some stuff back home.

I came back to the house and sorted through my food bag and confirmed with the group what our resupply strategy was. We have decided to only carry about 2 days of food so that we can hero into Cabazon. Truffles decided he didn’t need much so I walked over to the Fairway with Hangman and Pinky to get what we needed.

I headed back to the house and repacked my bag before we all tidied up and bid goodbye to our lovely casing at 11am for checkout. We all walked to the city center where Strider and Barbra bid us farewell. Niamh, Pimento, Pinky, Truffles, Hangman, and I all went to the Idyllwild Creamery for ice cream. Truffles and I split an ice cream flight and got lavender honey, caramel Oreo, latte chip, and rocky road. We all enjoyed sitting out on the patio people watching and procrastinating getting back on trail.

Around 1pm we decided we needed to start making our way out of town. We walked a little ways down the street and started trying to hitch. Thankfully we didn’t need a long hitch, and Hangman, Pinky, and I were picked up quickly. Niamh got a ride shortly after us, and Truffles and Pimento just decided to walk the 0.5ish miles to the Deer Springs trailhead.

We decided to get back on trail a little ways past where we initially got off at Devil’s Slide. We skipped about 6 miles of the PCT but made up for it by taking a side trail back up to the PCT. The climb was continuous and felt hard after eating so much ice cream. We all peered through it and reconnected with the PCT just after 4pm.

We all took a snack break and then pressed on. I loved the forest in the stretch because we were surrounded by huge boulders and towering pines. I hiked ahead of the group and listened to my book for a while. Eventually I hit snow and slowed down. I also ran into Late and chatted with him about how his past few days had been.

We hiked on together for a little bit and I was thankful for his company when I lost the trail completely in the snow. The rest of the group caught up and together we navigated our way back in team. we hiked hard to the last water source for 8 miles and filled up as much as we could.

Our initial goal for the day was to get to the Fuller Ridge Campground, but it became clear that we wouldn’t make it there before dark. We kept our eyes out for spots and thankfully found some tent sites.

We quickly pitched our tents and put in warm clothes. The wind is fierce at 8500’ and we tried to cook/eat quickly to return to the refuge of our tents. I’m gong to sleep chilly but am looking forward to warmer weather in the morning.

Day 18: April 25, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Tentsite – 187.5
End: Water Faucet – 205.7
Miles: 18.2
Ascent: 544 | Descent: 7460
Sleep: Cowboy

We officially passed 200 miles today! We knew it was going to be a cold morning since we slept so high up, so we all agreed to “sleep in” until around 6am so that the sun could at least be up. It got well below freezing last night, but thankfully there wasn’t any condensation in the tent since it was so windy.

We were on trail around 7:30am and went downhill basically all day. The views in the morning were glorious and we got to see a cloud inversion for the majority of the morning. The rocky mountains covered with conifer trees reminded me of the Smokies.

We encountered a large portion of snowy ice pretty early on that slowed us down. Truffles and Pimento even glaciated down a small section (which ripped Truffles’ Frog Toggs even further). We put on our micro spikes and it made for much easier going.

Around 9am we reached the Fuller Ridge Campground where we had planned to sleep the previous night. Based on how icy the trail was just before this point, we felt validated in stopping early the previous day. We took a long break here before continuing on downhill.

We made it to the water source just around 11am and U-Turn and Gooey caught up to our group. We all filtered water and ate lunch together. We had 12 miles to the next water source, all of which would be downhill but exposed. Being high up in elevation the air cool, but the sun was out I earnest and I knew it would get warmer the further we descended.

Just after noon we started making our way down the 12 miles stretch to the infamous “rusted pipe”. This section had beautiful views looking back towards what I assume is Fuller Ridge and also looking out over the windmill farm and I-10. As pretty as it was, I quickly grew tired of the descent and was anxious for it to be over.

I passed the time by listening to my audiobook. Truffles hiked behind me the whole way and we intermittently would leap frog around our friends, all of whom always wanted the descent to end. Within the last few miles of the day the wind really started to pick up. Some gusts were strong enough to knock me off balance and I felt like I was stumbling constantly.

Finally we reached the water faucet and the large rusted pipe. We looked at FarOut and decided it would be best to camp here rather than going further down onto the desert floor. The wind was rumored to be even worse close to the road, so we opted to stay by the water (where the wind was still bad).

Truffles and I tried two separate times to set up the tent but it was difficult in the high winds. We finally got it up and managed to also get into a fight in doing so. He chose to eat dinner alone in the tent while I went to eat with everyone else, all of whom were cowboy camping expect for Pinky and Hangman.

I came back to the tent after dinner and Truffles and I made up encore decided to take town the tent for fear that it would collapse in the wind or even tear. We rearranged our stuff for cowboy camping and enjoyed looking at the stars together before bed. Our plan tomorrow is to do the short 4ish miles to the road in the morning before getting an Uber to the In-N-Out and Walmart near Banning to resupply then bet back on trail. Hopefully we don’t blow away in the night, I’m really looking forward to my burger!