Day 12-16 idyllwild to big bear

Mile 179.4 to 266.0- Saddle Junction/Idyllwild to Ziggy & The Bear to Big Bear City
Day 12- Summit of Mt. San Jacinto
Hello everyone! It has been an amazing five days with almost too much to talk about. On the morning of day 12 we woke up around 7 am at the Idyllwild Inn and went to the coffee shop to upload some new pictures to the media tab of our blog. Go check them out! We will post more slideshows for different sections of the trail (right now we are on the southern California photo album). After having a delicious cup of organic coffee and some coffee cake we got a ride to the Devil's Slide trailhead to make the 2.5 mile ascent back up to Saddle Junction and the trail at 9 am, which is about 3 hours later than we normally start hiking. On the way up Devil's Slide Trail we encountered Paint Your Wagon and Tombstone.




It was really great seeing them again and chatting for a little bit. We decided to take the alternate trail up to San Jacinto peak at 10,834 ft, the second highest peak in sourthern California. This alternate route bypasses 4.5 miles of the "official" PCT but adds 6.3 miles. We thought the extra miles were well worth it.




When we dropped down off the peak we were a few miles into Fuller Ridge. We hiked the rest of Fuller Ridge out of San Jacinto State Park to a place where we were allowed to sleep. By the time we found a somewhat level place to sleep around mile 190 it was nearly dark and we were completely exhausted. We threw our tent up very quickly and got in bed almost instantly. We only covered about 10 PCT miles this day but by the time we hiked the peak and the 2.5 miles up Devil's Slide trail we had hiked about 15 miles uphill. The experience was well worth a low mileage day.
Day 13-down down down to mephisto's cafe
The morning of day 13 was the coldest yet! We both hiked with pants, hat, gloves, and a puffy from 5 am till about 9 am. The entire day of hiking was on modest to steep downhill terrain (very hard on the knees and ankles). From the place we camped to our next water source at Snow Canyon the distance as the crow flies was 4.5 miles...the pct covers this in 16 miles and drops over 6,000 feet.




We saw two rattlesnakes on the way down. One was very grumpy at us and rattled for a good two minutes. The second snake was, medium in size, and right in the middle of the trail, and did not really care about our existance. We made it down the trail, across San Gorgonio Pass, and to Interstate 10 by about 3:30 pm. Jenna compared the walk from the snow creek faucet to the interstate as being similar to walking across the Sahara while giving someone a piggy back. Another hiker said that hell must be someone sticking you on the top of fuller ridge and you having to walk all the way down to the pass just to be put back up on fuller ridge again.




Beneath the interstate is a place known as "I10 Hiker Oasis". While we were walking underneath the pass we saw a man filling up several coolers. It happened to be DNA who is the trail angel who stocks this cache. We chatted with him a bit while we rested up. In the coolers there was Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, water, and Coors. There was also a cooler there from another local trail angel, Lake to Lake. We have met her and Warner Springs Monty on the trail before. We sat in the shade for awhile drinking some nice cold beverages before we did the last mile to Ziggy and the Bears hiker house. It was a funny stop because we kept making jokes about drinking beer under an overpass.




At Ziggy and the Bear's we met a gentleman named Tim and both got steaming hot foot baths. This was an amazing turn of events for the day! Ziggy and the Bear got us salad, ice cream, a foot bath, and a wonderful place to stay.




Later in the evening we sat outside with Ziggy & Bear and chatted with them, Tim, and Alien March. It was a wonderful evening and was greater than anything we could have imagined.
Day 14-Mmmmmm coffee!
We woke up at Ziggy and the Bear's house to cereal, orange juice, coffee, and fruit. It was very delicious and was a great nights rest. This was a low mileage day due to the heat in the area. We hiked most of the morning through a wind farm and eventually got to whitewater river. We took a siesta here and dipped our feet in the ice cold river.




We hiked a few more miles but stopped early because we were tired and getting frustrated with the hard day.
Day 15- First poodle sighting
Today was a beautiful walk through a canyon most of the morning. We entered San Bernardino wilderness and entered the mountains. There was a lot of poodle dog bush in this section. Poodle dog bush is a dangerous plant that causes symptoms more severe than poison oak and can cause blistering on the skin.




It was a great day and we camped with an amazing view of the mountains.




Day 16- Lions Tigers & Bears
Today we woke up from our beautiful camp spot in San Bernardino mountains and continued hiking the pct. A few miles into the day we came across animal cages that house lions, tigers, and bears used in movies.




They were really cute but it was sad to see them all in cages. After hiking a few more miles we encountered some trail magic. Along the side of the trail was a couch, soda, oranges, and bubbles.




We hiked at a pretty fast pace today in order to get to big bear lake. Right before highway 18 we passed mile 265 which means we are 1/10 of the way there!




We got a ride from the trail to Big Bear City from dede, a girl starting the trail soon who happened to be right where the trail crosses highway 18 and also saw stone and pika on their way back to the trail. This was the first time we have seen hikers since we left idyllwild. We got our packages from Big Bear Hostel and then went to stay at the Motel 6. We ate at a cozy little restaurant called Lumberjack Cafe. It was a great little town but we will not take a zero here. We will get a few things done tomorrow in town then head out tomorrow afternoon on our way to wrightwood.
Cheers,
Nate