April 30th

zero miles.

Idyllwild, CA

In Idyllwild we gear up for the upcoming stretch of trail over Mount San Jacinto. There is lingering snow and ice on the trail above 7500 feet. The trail in this section reaches elevations above 9,000 feet, so we will be navigating through a significant stretch of snow. Unfortunately, in 2020 a young PCT hiker died after falling 600 feet while traversing an avalanche chute. Since then there has been a big push from the local community to make sure PCT hikers carry an ice axe and spikes to help ensure safe passage through this section during above average snow years.

We get rest of our town chores done: Snow baskets for Amber’s trekking poles, a cooler hiking shirt for me(my alpaca wool sun hoody has been way too hot to hike in), grocery store resupply, and sending unwanted gear home.

We initially planned to leave town in the afternoon, but by the time we completed our chores, it was getting late into the day. We also heard the mayor of the town would be greeting hikers in the town square, and we wanted to talk to the mayor about lagging trail maintenance during this previous section. With all that in mind, we decided to stay and take a zero day.

We talked to Mayor Max. He seemed like a very honest public servant, but he did seem distracted by carrots and the smells coming from the local BBQ restaurant.

After meeting the mayor, we ordered some pizza and retreated to our hotel to watch NBA playoffs games.

Tomorrow we begin to climb the slopes of San Jacinto.