I had a hard time sleeping last night because I kept worrying about the climb out of Idyllwild followed by walking on snow. I know Bunny was also worried because of her shallower snoring.
While we were medicating Wolf’s ankle at the various establishments around town, we did happen to meet an assistant trail angel by the name of Grumpy. He told us he had to pick up a hiker at 9:30 Tuesday morning and drive him back to Paradise Cafe. Through the course of the meandering conversation, we discovered the hiker was staying where we were staying. We asked if Grumpy would be willing to drive us back to the trailhead and save us 2.5 miles of road walking. He had me send him a text message so he could set a reminder to pick us up at 8:30.
Grumpy was absolutely punctual. He drove Wolf, Bunny, and me in the first shuttle leaving Ivy and Blue’s Clues for the second round. They both needed to charge their smart phones a bit longer this morning. (They are both in their mid 20s which means they are more connected to them than we are.) The trailhead has a latrine which proved too tempting to pass up. Part of the reason the 3 of us went first is we are the slower ones. Normally, we would have insisted Wolf wait for the second shuttle with Ivy and Blue’s Clues, but we’re hoping with his swollen ankle, he might be a little slower and closer to our speed.
Who is this Blue’s Clues I keep mentioning? The former Kevin now has a trail name. He bought a new cup just like Bunny’s except that it had a red coosie on it. Bunny asked if he wanted to switch because everything he owns is blue. He gladly accepted. I hesitantly asked if he wanted to switch underwear since mine were blue—(mostly blue, anyway. Yellow and blue make green. Brown and blue make…brown. I guess that brown is dominant.) He laughed but said yes. In the end, I had to decline because his pink thong was a bit too much for me.
Even with the little detour to the privy, Wolf, Bunny, and I hit the trail right at 9. I was hoping we had enough of a head start to make it up the trail to the saddle junction about the same time Ivy and Blue’s Clues do. I was worried about the weight of 8 days of food with the 2400’ climb. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to make the 2.5 miles and we all got there at the same time. Wolf is going slower today to make sure he doesn’t over tax his ankle.
We met a woman and her two kids in their teens out for a day hike. She told us it was all snow ahead. I told her we were all on the PCT and we were ready for it. She then said she wished she could get the time off work to hike the trail but she didn’t see how she could. I gave her our secret…quit. I’m sure her husband will be pleasantly surprised tonight when she announces her decision.
At the junction, we all dropped our packs and put on our spikes. 10 minutes later, we all stopped and took off our spikes because we were walking up the sunny, back side of San Jacinto. As expected, everyone quickly left us in their wake, even Wolf. I’ll have to pay attention to which way he sets up his tent tonight so I can kick the proper ankle to slow him down.
We did have to put our spikes back on in another mile because the snow got about 4’ deep the closer we got to our high point of the day. When we got to the turn to the summit, we could see the signs peeking out of the snow. This is a huge improvement over last week because enough snow has melted that we can read the signs. On the San Jacinto Summit Report just 10 days ago, only the top of the upright was visible.
There was just 2 miles tour camp from here. We turned and started the final 0.1 mile of climbing to our 9100’. We had all agreed to skip the summit because of it being so late in the day. It was already noon. As we started walking, I thought I heard a voice. We stopped and looked around. Wolf had missed the turn and was coming towards us. We thought he might have thought about going over the summit trying to follow Ivy and Blue’s Clues. He’d just been looking at his feet trying to be careful and missed the turn. He said the post holing got really bad in the other direction.
Once we got over 9100’, it was all downhill to the campsite with very little snow. Wolf stayed with us all the way to camp. We did stop a mile before camp to fill up on water since the camp is dry. However, there is an outhouse, so a mile long water Carry is very reasonable.
We made it at 1:30. Blue’s Clues and Ivy already had their tents up. I sent in my forward scouting team to prepare a site report and choose the optimal location to bed down for the night. Stated another way, I had Bunny choose the tent site because I always make the wrong decision. We quickly set up the tent and I started cooking supper while Bunny did the homemaking. Yes, we had supper at 2. Maybe we’ll squeeze in a lunch around 6.
It was a perfectly planned day. All of us sitting in camp at 2 having eaten and gotten all our chores done. The sun was shining and it was warm. And then the clouds started to roll in. The last thing we wanted was to go to bed at 4 again because of the cold. Bunny was the first to disappear. I tried to hold out but my toes were getting cold. We were both in our sleeping bags by 4:15. Blue’s Clues came down at 4:45 and said he and Wolf had built a fire. I guess we can burn the midnight oil a bit.
EFG