Day 14, May 1: Idyllwild to Mile 188

• Start: Idyllwild - Mile 179.4

• End: Mile 187.8

• Miles: 8.4

• Ascent: 2273 | Descent: 1702

Sofia and I woke up slow and packed up to head out of the Airbnb. I wanted to stop by the gear store again to get one or two more small things, and we went to get breakfast at the Red Kettle. The food was good but they were totally slammed so we were there for more than an hour and a half. I was antsy to get on trail but was also just going with the flow. 

Finally we made it back to her car and got to the trailhead, only to realize that we needed a forest pass to park there, which she didn’t have and we could have bought at the gear store. We found street parking a half mile down from the trailhead, packed up and started walking back up towards Devil’s Slide trail. 

Some of my friends from Julian - Animal Planet (Steve), Danny and Otto (Autumn) - were at the parking lot waiting for other friends. After a quick hello and introducing them to Sofia, she and I started up the trail.   It was noon at this point - much later than I’ve been hiking any other day. 

The hike up wasn’t too bad, although the five days of food carry felt pretty atrocious. We made it 2.5 miles up to Saddle Junction where I would rejoin the PCT, and Feather Blue, Jive Turkey, and some others were hanging out. Sofia thought she would turn around there but decided to hike a little further in a search for a redwood tree to take a picture with.

Unfortunately (?) there were only pines to be found, so Sofia and I said our goodbyes a little ways past the junction. I was so happy I got to spend some time with her!!

My knee started hurting on the climb - I think from getting a little overzealous with yoga the night before - so I was moving slow and trying not to twist my knee. Still, the rest of my friends had started hiking around 10am, so I was also trying to catch up to them. 

After some slow, painful but beautiful miles, I caught up to Christina and Andrew (who we had recently named Power Plant because of his solar watch which proclaimed it had 104 days of batter life) at the north fork of San Jacinto River. I was hurting pretty bad so I was happy to see some familiar faces. 

After hanging for a bit and filtering enough water for a 19-mile carry (our longest yet), Christina and Power Plant continued on while I tried to massage my knee. I started hiking again finally and although I was in pain, the sunset was beautiful. 

I had gotten word that the rest of my group was camping at a backpacking campground a ways down the trail, but it was getting late and I didn’t want to get there at 10pm, so I decided to camp by myself 2.7 miles behind them. I set up my tent and camp as quickly as I could and passed out within seconds.