Day 11: The Fire Alternate & Mayor Max
Date: Sat 4/28
PCT Start Mile: 154.5 (on trail camping)
PCT End Mile: 168.6
Fire Alternate Miles: 4.6
PCT + Fire Alternate Mileage for Day: 18.7
Off-Trail Hike Mileage: 0
Total PCT Mileage: 168.6
Total Overall Mileage: 181.04
The Highlights: major climbs, major wind, major hospitality in Idyllwild, and meeting Mayor Max
The day started windy and cooler than the past several days. Luckily we had set up our tent in a fairly protected area last night, otherwise it would have flapped all night in the wind.
We hit the trail just after 7am with extra layers on. Hiking in the shadow of the mountain with wind gusts it was chilly, but the extra layers were off soon enough.
This section of the PCT has been quite different from the previous sections, with lots of large boulders along and in the trail and pine trees towering over us, acorns everywhere the size of our heads.
I would not want this to fall on my head
The trail climbed up, up, up, for the first 3+ hours as we went from an elevation of 5100 ft to over 7000 ft. The climbs were windy, which was a nice change from the desert but sometimes almost too cold. Is there a thermostat we can set somewhere? The views across the valley were epic, as usual. On our way to the high point of the trail, we began passing through burn area from the fire in 2013 that was the cause of part of the PCT still being closed. While it’s sad that so much area was burned, the burn area was quite pretty. There is a certain beauty to a burned landscape that has begun its regrowth.
After marching ourselves to over 7000 ft, we began a descent to just under 6000 ft, much of the trail steep, rocky, and still windy. Eventually we were sheltered from the wind for a bit – this didn’t last long – and hiking through a burn area with several downed trees, climbing over, under, and around them.
A little after noon, we stopped for a lunch break at the Fobes Canyon Trail junction. We hid ourselves from the wind as best as we could, but it was a shorter break than usual since it was too cold to sit around long.
From the Fobes Canyon Trail junction, it was two more miles to the PCT closure at mile 168.6. This section brought us into the San Juacinto Wilderness, beginning with a 1000 ft ascent with several steep switchbacks that brought my pace to a crawl. Shawn powered far ahead and waited for me near the trail junction with the fire alternate route that we would hike from the PCT closure.
The alternate route – Spitler Peak Trail – would eventually pop us out on Highway 74, where we planned to hike/hitch another ~4 miles down the road to a campground for the night before hitching into Idyllwild in the morning.
The decent down the Spitler Peak Trail was nice, mostly well graded other than some steeper sections at the top, and passed under towering charred trees.
Along the descent, Angie came into view just behind us. “Hello, friend!” I called. We had been leapfrogging with Angie and her hiking partner Helen for several days and camped with them a couple nights earlier. While Helen had opted to hitch into Idyllwild from Paradise Valley Cafe, Angie had continued up the PCT/alternate route. After chatting with her as we hiked, we found out that she had basically camped only about a tenth of a mile back from us on the trail and started hiking around the same time this morning, but through similar break times, we had managed to go almost all day without crossing paths. We hiked the rest of the trail down to the road with her, chatting about all the top things hikers talk about: food, water, feet, and poop. So…. pretty similar to the discussions from my running and triathlon days. And we also talked about snake encounters… this is a popular desert topic. Lucky us, we hadn’t seen another Rattlesnake since our day hiking out of Julian (when coincidently, she and Helen had been not far behind us and we had stuck around to warn them). We have seen several California Racers though (basically part of the same family as gardener snakes, though all the CA Racers I’ve seen have been far bigger than any Gardner snakes I’ve seen elsewhere). True to their name, these buggers move fast and at least twice I’ve been startled as they have darted across the trail.
As we continued descending from the mountains, Angie mentioned that she had a friend coming to pick her up at the trail head on Highway 74 and mentioned that we were more than welcome to come along. This was an awesome invite, since hitching can be very difficult. It would be easier to go into Idyllwild now and find a campsite at the campground in town, since we were coming in a day earlier than expected.
The trail marched us down to the desert floor and we felt like we were going forever without seeing the road. Most of the times we are heading to a road, we can see it forever in the distance. Not this time. Is a road in our future?!?Where is the road?!? Finally, the road came into view just before we arrived. Finally!
In no time at all, Angie’s friend Jay arrived. In addition to giving us a lift, he said there was plenty of room at his parent’s place for us to spend the night, get showered, and get some laundry done if we wanted. Basically all the things a thru-hiker desires from a town stop, in addition to non-packaged food items. We accepted this offer with many thanks. As we came into Idyllwild, Jay gave us the full tour of the small mountain town, the sole industry of which is tourism. I’ll talk more about the town itself in tomorrow’s post, but for now I’ll just say that we have already been fortunate enough to meet the mayor.
That’s right, the town’s mayor is a dog. How cool is that? Neat, huh?
After the full town tour, which took about 10 minutes, we were off to Jay’s folks place, where he was living for the summer. They -like everyone else in Idyllwild – love PCT hikers and were happy to have a few weary hikers crash on their couches. Suzanne and Billy greeted us with cold drinks and fresh towels. A piping hot shower had never felt so good… since the last one 😂 As soon as we were all showered and into our clean(ish) clothes, our dirty hiking clothes were whisked off to the laundry. Amazing trail angels.
Freshly showered, we were soon at the Idyllwild Brew Pub. New within the last 9 months or so, we are the first PCT class to test it out. And it was awesome. With great heaters on the porch, you could sit outside year round. Shawn sampled the beer and we all dug into our grub. I actually got a salad because my body was screaming, please feed me something with nutritional value that does not come out of a package!!!
Look mom, I’m eating my vegetables!
At the brew pub, we talked trail with Jay, who would be joining Angie on the trail for the next 150 miles, along with his husky, Terra. We also ran into Grace and Circus Act, a couple hikers we have met on the trail, and met some new hikers – Vagabond, who looks like Bender from The Breakfast Club, and Whiplash, who has a long scraggly beard and hikes in a kilt. Jay was beyond generous and picked up the tab for the meal, despite efforts to convince him otherwise. Did I mention how amazing the people of Idyllwild are?
After nice hot showers, a warm meal, and plenty of good conversation, yawns were being exchanged around the table and our hosts quickly realized that it was way past hiker midnight and time to get the weary walkers back to the house. After a bit of playing with Terra, we were all snuggled into nice plush couches and manufacturing the Zzzzzzz’s.
