Jbobier - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2007

We made Idyllwild today!!!

Breaking camp this morning, the wind was still howling and continued to howl all day as we hiked. Again, we climbed, often on sheer cliff walls where the path had been dynamited out years before by the Forest Service. Several times the wind hit me hard enough to make me worry about whether I'd get blown off the path. At one point I started across a 5' gap in the stone crags of a saddle and was hit by a hard blast that almost blew me off the path and off of the mountain. I quickly stepped back, and timed the wind so that I could jump across at the next lull. Something else. All of the hikers that I've told that story to today in Idyllwild knew exactly which gap I was talking about.

We climbed several peaks on our way to Saddle Junction which is where we met the Devil's Slide Trail that took us down to Idyllwild. The very top of our climb topped out at 8570' in elevation. The thin air had me gasping most of the climb up. I've never done any real hiking at this elevation, so my body is still learning how to deal with it. It's all stunningly gorgeous tho. The beauty has even been enough to distract me from my fear of heights.

The Devil's Slide Trail just dropped us 1700' into Idyllwild. The climb back out is going to be tough. Unfortunately, we'll be staying here the entire weekend. The post office is closed on Saturday, so we can't send our bounce buckets out until Monday. The town is very pretty tho and the people have been quite friendly. We were able to hitch from the end of Devil's Slide into town in a matter of minutes. Now for some pizza and a shower.

Devil's Slide Trail lives up to its name.?? I couldn't help but think to myself the whole way down, "We have to climb back up THIS!!".?? I'm glad to be in such a friendly town and out of the cold, cold weather we had on the mountain tops the last couple of nights.?? Idyllwild caters to hikers. We even see signs on a couple of businesses welcoming us.?? We found a great place to stay called Fireside Inn with a very friendly staff.?? Pretty large cabins with living area, kitchen and bedroom.?? Off for pizza and showers with the Cowboy.?? Yeah!!