Goin' Idyllwild!

Hey hey!  Made it to mile 178!  The past week has been a blast.  I'm getting into the rhythm of the day - waking up at 5:30 and then hiking until I'm hungry, stopping for breakfast, and then going for 2 hour (about 5 mile) walks broken up by tons o' snacks to rack up something like 17 miles a day.  The biggest day has been 24 miles so far.  At the end of the day it's time for a quick meal, a few sentences in the journal (Today I hiked.  It was fun.  I'm tired.) and then it's in the bag and dead asleep by 8:30.  Rinse (if you can find water) and repeat.

I've really enjoyed walking by myself.  I zone out.  Let my mind wander.  It watch the miles roll by.  Then I reconvene with some friends for a break or to camp out and go off on my own in the morning.  In the last few days I've been hanging out with a real good group of folks that I hope to hang around with for a while - shoutout to Bubbles, New Homes, Seahorse, and Tiny Dancer to name a few.  Welcome to the PCT circus.  Funny names, strange smells, and funky food abound.  It's good to be with a positive crowd especially with the weather we've had in the past few days - did a little climbing to about 8000 feet and were met with high winds and hail storms.  A bunch of people waited out the weather but I was psyched to go right through it with some good people.  We all stayed pretty dry and had sunshiny smiling faces on our way down the mountain.  Best to hit the bar in town with a few good stories!

Today I took a "zero" and didn't hike at all.  I've mostly spent my time eating food, drinking beers, and hanging with hikers with a few big spurts of productivity in between to get myself ready for the next leg.  My itinerary still looks on point for Big Bear and whatever the next town is (wrightwood?).  You can see that info here.  Best email AND toss me a voicemail if you plan on sending anything out.

Tomorrow we head out for a first summit - Mt. San Jacinto with the intimidating Fuller Ridge leading up to it.  People have been freaking out about high snow levels and slick conditions but I have the gear to make it happen.  It's gonna be good adventure.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some photos online sometime soon and show you all what I've been looking at - it's freakin' beautiful out here!  Plus I have good photos of roadside beers and greasy spoons diners we happen to come upon at road crossings (man that french toast was good).

One last thing.  Had my first real deal trail magic yesterday when we came upon a couple unsuspecting day hikers.  We wound up heading the same way and by the end of the day these two fellas were feeding us beers and cheetos and giving us rides to town.  Thanks to Brian and Lee for San Diego and LA for making the end of a long day a dream come true!