Day 19 04/04 Just Around the Bend

Waking up early with only 6 miles left to Idyllwild we thought we'd have a quick hike and be in town to catch breakfast before they stopped serving it.
Boy were we wrong.
Once again just around the corner from our camp was another steep snow traverse, very icy from the cold night. No problem. I put on my micro spikes and we continued forward. We made good pace for a while until the snow got deeper and the trail became harder to follow. At some point the trail became completely indiscernible under 2-3 feet of snow and we had to navigate by comparing the paper contour maps with the gps.
With no way to see the trail we cut straight lines (or as straight as possible) from .5 mile point to .5 mile point. That meant up and down over each ridge, through thickets and scrub bushes, over boulders and huge fallen trees and a lot of the time sinking to your knees in the snow-mostly on angled slopes where slipping would mean somethng serious.
We got within feet of each point with no sign of the trail except for the occssional chainsaw cut wood where a dead tree had fallen over the trail and been cleared. As we moved along we kept an eye out for these logs as confirmation, shouting "saw cut wood, saw cut wood!" It was nice to know we were anywhere near the path.
It became exhausting sinking to your knees or higher (postholing) in the now sun warmed snow as most of the time it happened, it continued for the next ten steps as you strained to pull yourself out.
After what seemed like forever we came over a ridge at Tahquitz peak and topped out in elevation. I was blown away by the sheer beauty of the mountain that loomed over Idyllwild. We picked what seemed to be the right direction to get to the Devil's Slide Trail which lead into town, and multiple tracks came to join our path the closer we got. One set of footsteps from the right, one from the left, even two sets of mountain lion tracks seemed to confirm we were on the path of least resistance and headed in the right direction.
When we finally arrived at the trail junction and saw the nice wooden signs pointing to Humber park (where we could hitch to Idyllwild) we laid out our mats on the snow and collapsed for a well needed break. We were overjoyed. No more second guessing. We were safe.
As we lay there sharing a packet of tuna a family taking their kids out for a day hike walked up from the direction of town. They asked us where we were from, and how far we had gone. They had never heard of thru-hiking from Mexico to Canada and it was almost odd because it was the first time I had to explain it to someone who hadn't heard of it since telling family before I started the trip. We hiked the last couple miles down the Devil's Slide Trail with them to Humber Park. They were super nice and ended up giving us a ride into town. Its great to know there's still good people out there.



As we pulled away Tahquitz peak towered over us and it was hard to believe we had been above that an hour before. Once in town we walked to the Idyllwild Inn, where they gave us a super cheap rate for being PCT hikers and we got a whole cabin with fireplace to ourselves for almost half price! They even washed our clothes for us!
We had to get to the grocery store to resupply before they closed. With nothing else to wear and our clothes in the wash, I was gonna wait. Joe turned to me and said, "A true trail god would go shopping in his rain gear. "
I couldn't let him call me out like that.
I put on my rain jacket and snow pants in 70 degree sunshine and we marched to to the market, our clothes crinkling with each step. We even went out to eat like that, with no shortage of stares.
I was proud, and basking in all our glory.
The mountains had put us through our paces.
But we were warm, and full.

P.S. check out the rock I found at our camp that looked the most like a toilet out of anything I've found or built yet. Unfortunately, I'd already gone. :(