Day 15: Idyllwild - Camp Site @ mile 186

Day: 22.04.2018

Miles hiked today: ×/- 15 miles 

Total  Mileage: 186 m

Today is a sad day - my 0 day of yesterday is already past plus I have to leave Idyllwild today and hit the trail again! Due to the fireclosure we have to see how to get best back on the trail. There are basically 2 options. One is little closer to town and less altitute but misses 1.5 miles of the Trail. However, you could just dump your backpack at the junction and walk the 1.5 miles there and back. The other option is steeper and little further away, leading up to Tahquitz Peak to the PCT. So you do not miss a single mile or have to walk there and back. However we only found out later about it being steep and further away! The night before I was informed that apparently there is a hitch hike option from the Idyllwild inn to one of the two trail heads at 8 am. We were not so sure about it but willing to find out. And really at 8.15am we jumped into the back of a car bringing us to the Trailhead. The Trail was very steep and it took us a while until we realised we are not on the PCT yet! Our backpacks are loaded with 6 days worth of food and loads of water. They are very heavy (about 16-18kg I would guess) and we struggled getting up that mountain. The views however are rewarding. We walked a couple of miles in the PCT before we decided to take our lunch break. A Tortilla with fresh Avocado, tomatoes,  bell peppers, philadelphia, cheese and beef.  While I could have thrown away this heavy backpack on the uphill part I do love it now! We even brought some wine for dinner! We enjoyed that spot and our yummie lunch that much we stayed there for more than 1.5 hours. About time to move on again. Only about 15 minutes later we run into one guy of our hiker group, lying deshydrated next to the Trail. A group of other hikers already took care if him and pressed the emergeny button of a spot device. The rescue team however read the coordinates wrong and it took them about 2.5 hours to fly in. Poor guy  (Not mentioning names here) was flown to Palms springs Hospital where he stayed observated for a day! We kept on walking as we didnt want to make him even more embarassed and enough people stayed to take care of him. All day it was a mostly steep uphill day. The uphill kicked my ass but the views were epic. The last couple of miles were hard and we struggled a little again. After filling up our bottles with fresh and cold water from a river (my hands nearly froze getting that water) we only hiked less than a mile to pitch our tents (Water makes your backpack heavy again but there is a 20 miles waterless strech in front of us, - mostly downhill though- we made sure we carry enough!)

We got rewarded with a beautiful sunset, good food and a glass of wine followed by a hot ovomaltine before going to bed. What else do you need??!