I woke up with a splitting headache and feeling dizzy. A bad start for a bad day.

That was one cold night up there on the mountain. I had all my clothes on, which meant I had only a pair of boxers and a pair of socks to use as a pillow. It wasn’t that bad, except for my feet, which were a bit chilly. In the morning we waited for the sun to come up over the ridge, and start warming us. Idan had a leak from his water bladder, and he got some of his gear wet, which bummed him a bit. But we took our time, and he got it all dry by the time we left. The trail was a long waterless stretch for 15 miles of hiking down around 2000 feet. It quickly got down below the snow level, and it was just an annoying downhill slog for a long long while. It was just 4.5 miles as the crow flies, but we had to go the long way around. It really strange, the way we started in the cold snow, and quickly got down to the hot hot desert floor. We quickly started to miss the chilly weather. I didn’t miss the wet feet, though. We were fantasizing about reaching the spigot and resting there under some shady trees until the heat broke, before we head out to the last miserable 5 miles of hiking along the sandy desert floor. When we finally got there we were sad to discover there is almost no shade in there, but we managed to cram ourselves under a big rock for about an hour of rest.

Last night we all crashed at Kay’s cabin, by the campground. It was much warmer than sleeping outside, and I slept really well. In the morning we went back to the campground for breakfast (breakfast burrito with fresh fruit and yogurt), picked up Sunbeam (who insisted she’d rather sleep in her tent), and headed out North back to the trail. I was trying to decide if I want to walk into Idyllwild from the point where I twisted my foot, or just skip the road walk and continue from Idyllwild. At the end I decided I would hike up from Idyllwild, along the South Ridge trail. I wanted to get back to the trail right at the closure, so that I won’t miss any PCT miles. Idan was going to climb out at a different trail, and we planned to meet up at the campsite at PCT mile 191. I started my hike up towards the PCT at about 11:00. Quite a late start. The trail up towards Tahquitz peak wasn’t too hard, but pretty quick up there it was all snow walk. The trail was very well marked by previous hikers, and it was just switchbacks to the top. The only annoying bit was the snow dumps on my head, as I was passing under those snow covered trees. I passed several day hikers just before reaching the peak, and the views from the fire tower towards the peak at San Jacinto were very nice. From there it was a short trail down towards the PCT, but I think I still didn’t quite make it to the northern closure sign. Oh well.

Well, these were some very uneventful days.

Last night I camped high up, right before the trail closure. The spot turned our to be excellent - I had no wind during the night, and it was not too cold at night. Oh, and I didn’t make that second dinner, after the veggie burger. This morning I hiked an easy short trail to the closure sign. It was all up on ridge, and the winds were blowing hard. When I got to the closure I noticed that the eastern side trail, the one heading down to Ceder Spring, is also closed. Just so you know. I took the western side trail, down from the mountain. I only found out then that the gpx file I had of the detour was for the second day. But I had Halfmile’s blog post of that first day with me, including all the twists and turns along the way.