Weeks 3 & 4 – Brown Blazing & Mountain Climbing

 

There are two main routes into Idyllwild, the next town usually visited by hikers. The first way is to hitchhike from Paradise Valley Cafe, or you can continue to walk and veer off on a blue blaze which gets you closer to Idyllwild which is what we chose to do. The trail leading into Idyllwild was the start of our challenging hikes, with large ascents, immediately followed by large descents, it’s a mental battle of trying to overcome the feeling that all the hard work ascending was for nothing. This is also where we encountered our first patches of snow, first slips and first tears. In hindsight, I’m glad we had this test before hitting Mount San Jacinto.

 

The town of Idyllwild is absolutely beautiful and exactly what I was hoping to experience in my American culture trip. As one of the bigger “small towns” that we’ll encounter, it had everything from burger stores, mountain shops, Italian restaurants, brewery and even an English store where we could purchase Marmite!!! The icing on the cake was meeting Mayor Max III, a golden retriever with the honorary title of Mayor, he greets visitors on most days of the week in the back of a pickup truck!

 

Mount San Jacinto is a beautiful looking mountain that we’d become familiar with as we walked towards it and excited to climb. However, my experience on the mountain was not as exciting. Once in Idyllwild the fear mongering started, many people telling us that the summit and Fuller Ridge are extremely dangerous and that we will need ice axes. Something none of our group have and hadn’t planned on purchasing. Many other people chose to skip this mountain, however we decided that we would make our way over it and turn around if it felt unsafe. From afar we could see that the summit was snowy, but it didn’t look like anything that I haven’t encountered before. In reality, I have never been in snow that deep!

We did not feel that the climb was unsafe at all, however due to the hot weather we were having, it meant that the snow was quickly melting beneath us and every step became increasingly harder as our foot plummeted deeper. My light frame found it hard to push my foot into the snow and would often fall onto my bum, DC would face the opposite problem and he would regularly posthole. Postholing is when your foot hits an air pocket (usually around trees or rocks) and you end up deep into the snow. Due to the heat there was only a very small window of hours suitable for walking where the snow was hard enough for our microspikes to grip, however the walk was too long to limit ourselves to these hours. Most of us found it incredibly frustrating, energy sucking and mentally draining as the snow meant there was no true path to follow and we’d often find that we’d strayed from the PCT and would have to do a sharp ascent or descent to get back on trail.

 

At the start of Mission Creek we camped at the Oasis. A beautiful park surrounded by interesting cliff faces and ponds, even one that you can take a dip in. This Oasis marks the start of Mission Creek, a whole new challenge in itself. This part of the trail took a beating from Hurricane Hilary, meaning most of the path has been washed out and instead you have to walk through the creek. The creek is miles of boulders, varying in sizes from rubble (that feels like walking on sand), to boulders taller than myself (which you have to go over). At time we would see the trail on the cliff, climb up the cliff in hope for an easier walk, only to reach another washed away section where the trail becomes a complete cliff edge back into the creek. For miles we were climbing boulders, mentally trying to stay focused. The creek is beautiful and at first I loved this new challenge and landscape, however it does tire quickly! Many shoes were lost to the creek, with the boulders causing tears and wearing tread away.

 

The walk from Mission Creek to Big Bear Lake was beautiful, yet still challenging, with views over to Mount San Gregorio. By this point we were feeling exhausted and DC & I decided we would push on and bust out some early miles to get to Big Bear Lake a day earlier than our group planned. It’s funny that exhaustion can help you unlock that last bit of stored away energy and push your limits if it means there’s a comfortable bed at the end! In Big Bear Lake we stayed at the only hostel in town, overrun with hikers this was a great chance to meet others and share stories. I don’t have much else to say about this town and we spent most of the time relaxing, cleaning ourselves and reflecting on the challenges we’d just overcome.

 

This was an amazing surprise, as in all my research of the PCT I had not heard about these hot springs. There are many pools here of varying temperatures, naturally heated and surrounded by beautiful landscapes. In was perfect for healing our bodies tortured by PCT miles! Many people zero here, although we just spent the evening and took a late morning, which seemed perfect to me. One warning to others, clothing is optional!

 

Leaving the hot springs we’d heard rumours about the Joshua Inn, a dive bar not far from the trail where the bar will arrange to pick you up, you can collect a fresh sandwich and then be returned to trail. We thought we’d go for it, especially as fresh vegetables become something you start to day dream about when the closest you’ve come to nutrients is dried cheese & broccoli Knorr rice sides! However, this did not go to plan. We LOVED the Joshua Inn, for reasons I can’t explain. The Josh offers the perfect, real American experience. We ended up spending the night and camping out back, using all my singles on the jukebox and playing the “undefeated” locals at pool, a win that DC is very proud of. The Josh came and concurred!

 

Leaving the Josh, we had one of the most beautiful walks around Silverwood Lake and excitingly the route was headed towards the only McDonalds on trail! We headed off early in time for breakfast where we stuffed our faces with Egg McMuffins and Hash Browns! This was a great day.