Idyllwild to pct mile 197.5

A day of ups and downs.  We left the sleeping town even before the coffee shops opened.  We passed the vacation pet kennel with signs in English and Spanish telling people to not stand next to the fence because it was NOT a zoo!   Cracked us up. 

Less than a mile from town we began the 4000 foot climb up into the mountains of San Jacinto.  It was surprising to move up and up and up into dry country only to come across a dancing, sparkling creek jumping off the granite boulders amidst a small snowfield.  On a flat granite slab big enough for 8 people and right next to the stream we had our best picnic yet.  It was  french bread, cheese, beef stick and Caesar salad. 

After lunch we loaded up with water because this magical creek was our last water source for 20 miles.  We set off quite cheerful because we knew the next water was at 2000 feet so we should be going downhill.  We are now in our tent 12 miles from that stream and only down to about 5000 feet.   Haha.  We began at 5000 this morning, climbed to 9000 feet and finally 12 hours later, back to 5000 feet.  Tick Tock zipped past us, in 6 days he traveled the same distance that has taken us 12 and we've averaged 16.8 miles a day.   He is about our age too. We too passed a few today, but only because they napped in the shade.

There were many ups and downs along the way.  And brush on the last few miles.Thorny brush that tore our poles out of our hands and tore at our skin through our clothes.  Some places it occluded the trail and I would poke my poles ahead in case a snake slept in the shade. 

Mark's feet got sore and one of my toenails began to lift.  My legs broke out in burning hives.  We stopped and made camp.  Dry camp with a supper of corn chips and granola bars.  We still have 3.5 liters of water, but don't think that will be enough for cooking and the 8 mile hike down to the water spigot tomorrow.

We haven't gotten the water right yet.  Usually we've erred on the side of too much water, but 2 legs we didn't bring quite enough.  We have always been safe, but just not enough to cook too.  What we have learned that is a good rule of thumb is a liter each for  every five miles and an extra liter each for camping.  Of course one must factor in weather and difficulty of trail.  In this leg, we under estimated difficulty of trail. 

In a good note, I only coughed about a dozen times today.  I'm getting better!  Now its time to sleep.  Hiker midnight comes at dusk.

17 miles today