Guess I had to leave the comfort of the lodge in Idyllwild and head back to the wilderness. Yeah…it was a bit difficult to leave the luxuries of civilization, but not that bad 🙂. As you can imagine, one starts really appreciating the basic things of life like running water, flush toilets, a bed, electricity, good food & drink options and of course, WiFi/4G service when you don't have them for days.
Before heading out, I picked up the resupply box from the PO that I had mailed to myself long ago. Supposedly there was 4-days of food in that, but looking at it, I think I grossly overestimated how hungry I would be on the trail. Anyway, put everything in the pack and alas, the pack weight went back to 35 lbs (17-28 kg) or so. The lodge offered ride service to the trailhead and headed back up 2.6 miles (and it was only up & up all of those 2.6) to Saddle Junction where I was back on PCT.
The plan was for a short hike today - only about 11 miles and I hoped to reach the campground in good time. But, hiker proposes and the trail disposes. Till lunch, the trail was clear and easy. However, after that, I entered the Mt. San Jacinto wilderness area and more & more of the trail was covered in snow.
The problem was the snow & ice combined to make it treacherous for hiking. Especially going even small down slopes, as it was difficult to get a grip on the surface. I did not have microspikes, as I had mailed them to Kennedy Meadows (much further north), which would have helped. It was not that it was terribly dangerous (no, there was no risk of gaining off the mountain like in the movies), but extremely slow going. Never wanted so much for the downhill to get over 😀. Reached the campsite only around 5:30 pm after a couple of slips and falls. Later came to know that other hikers also had a similarly tough time.
Above is an example of downhill switchback with no grip on the snowy surface.
Another example of uphill "climbing" on snow.
To continue the misery of the day, as I was setting up the tent, the main tent pole cracked 🤦🏽♂️. A bit of duct tape fixed that but I have to think of getting it replaced/fixed. Additionally, the end of the top support pole also came out of it's mooring. If I was a superstitious guy, I would have said today was a bad day. Of course, it is just a few random occurrences 🙂.
Btw, the front mesh pocket of the backpack fell against a small dead tree branch and got a hole this morning. Fixed that too with tape.
Cracked pole
Attachment out of it's mooring
Among other things, today I finally saw what I was expecting/hoping for a long time. I have mentioned how windy it has been all these days (so much so that the wind was roaring constantly the whole night of D-8 and it was exactly like sleeping next to a electric generator) and I had wondered why this was not been harnessed.
Below: first time I saw steps in the PCT. Guess somebody did a good job of trail building!
Finally, data:
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