Idyllwild to 181
Our last night in the cabin was an eventful one. Animal Style's family lives in the Bay Area and wanted badly to celebrate Passover with him. Little did they know that celebrating with him also meant celebrating with the rest of the crew!
We sat on the back deck as the sun went down behind a mountain ridge and read about the history of Passover as we ate celery and figs, matza and gefilte fish. It was a lovely evening and a pleasant surprise for all!
After second dinner (a huge veggie stirfry), we realized that our lofty goals of hiking from town up to San Jacinto Peak for the following day were a little too ambitious, and with full bellies next to a warm fire, we decided to sleep in the following day and only hike 8 or 9 miles.
[Passover dinner times!, Local Bike Shop, Blogging in bed, Yeti crossing!, Lizzy and the bear, Gear strewn across the floor- always!]
The morning was chaotic with everyone doing their part to guzzle down the leftover food in the fridge (pickles, cheese, bread, stir fry, a burrito, fruit and a gallon of ice cream). We were out the door around noon and hiked two miles through town, uphill, to the trailhead that would lead to the PCT. A few more miles and a couple thousand feet later, we were back on the trail and feeling good.
The gang (slow magic) posing for a typical picture on our way out of Idyllwild. From left to right, Jetpack, Animal Style, Spearhead, Fey and Day Hike.
The weather service called for strong winds in the evening up to 60 mph, so we did our best to find a sheltered campsite at 9000 feet. On the way up the mountain we ran into a park ranger than mentioned off hand that it was supposed to go down into the twenties this evening. We ended up pitching all our tents (plus a few extra people who joined) about as close as physically possible. Animal style and Day Hike shared a tent in hopes of staying warmer. I'm not sure if it helped, but there was more laughter than usual.
The views during sunset were spectacular, with low clouds rolling in and a storm brewing not far off in the distance. We stepped up our dinner game and made mashed potatoes, combined them with our veggie mixture and put the whole concoction on a tortilla with string cheese. Pretty fantastic:).
The wind was howling through the tree tops but our tents saw only a fraction of the wind. It sounded like a chugging locomotive far in the distance and eventually roared by us at full force before shaking the tents.
It’s quite fun to be up at a higher elevation after suffering through the desert for a couple weeks. The huge pines and open wooded areas with large boulders are quite magical. The soft pine forest feels like walking on a trampoline with years of needles under foot.
Liz and I are huddle together and ready for the chilly night. Tomorrow morning will surely be exciting as we crawl out from our sleeping bags!
[Animal Style and Fey trekking up the road out of Idyllwild, cheesin, group shot!, looking out over Idyllwild and beyond from our campsite, 6 tents huddled together for warmth, Our magnificent dinner, selfie!, sunset with storm clouds rolling in.]
[Why hello there]
