What a day! We got up early this morning and caught a ride back to Hurkey Creek to start the climb toward Mount Jacinto. The summit is off a side trail from the PCT, and we planned to hike about 16 miles and camp up top. Unfortunately since bad weather is moving in, chances of snow and temperatures in the teens overnight. We decided to play it by ear and see how the mountain looked as we climbed. We hiked from around 4,000 feet in elevation to 8,800 feet in the first ten miles. We dropped down to 8,000 and then back up to 9,000. When we reached the summit side trail we decided we didn’t want to camp at the top and instead continued on the PCT for six more miles to camp at 8,500 feet. It’s going to be in the low 20s tonight, 50% chance of precipitation tonight so hopefully we get lucky and avoid it. We hiked somewhere in the realm of 20 miles today, over probably the most strenuous terrain thus far as well as the highest altitudes. Tomorrow we’ll drop down Fuller Ridge toward Cabazon. Tonight we’ll be cuddling together to stay warm.
I forgot to mention we found our friend Strider from the AT in Idyllwild! He’s a few trail miles ahead of us still, but we had a great time catching up in town. We should be seeing him on the trail again soon.
