Day 17- May 6th

Today we TRIED to sleep in but instead woke up at 6. Our bodies are now on a backpacking sleep schedule and there's no going back! 

We went to a coffee shop and got some good things, I had the "PCT Sunrise", which is a blended drink with OJ and yogurt. Sounds weird but was really good! 

After that we walked around a few little cute shops in town, and scoped out a jerky shop for our resupply later before we hike out tomorrow. The lady there told us this is the coldest day that they've had all spring!! 

Some good news about the storm, we saw it start rolling in today around noon over some fish and chips and beer, but overall the weather says that it's going to ease up tomorrow.

We are most likely going to head out tomorrow morning, since there will only be some showers at worse, stay at the Mt. Jacinto Shelter, and then summit Sunday morning. Mt. Jacinto is the highest mountain in this immediate cluster at 10,834 feet.

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I wrote all the above around lunchtime. Then, we got some bad news: the ranger in town says the storm that brings rains tonight in Idyllwild is supposed to bring a bunch of new snow to the summit of Mt. Jacinto!! 

There's a few options for tomorrow: one involves a sketchy 8 mile twisty turvy highway walk down busy highway 243, to get to an old road that leads us up another 8 miles to the PCT. However it might be super sketchy with snow up at that point anyway! 

Second option is to charge up the PCT, but since this is a freak storm and the coldest spring weather ever, we weren't exactly prepared for it. We have all the clothing to stay warm but our micro spikes for walking in the snow are sent far ahead to Kennedy Meadows, mile 702, the start of the High Sierra. I'm really frustrated because it's been such nice weather in this area before now and next week is beautiful too! Summiting Mt. Jacinto has been a highlight in my mind since the start, and I'm bummed that it's so dangerous up there right now... (There are other trails around, but none are much lower than the PCT, and some are way more dangerous at the moment)

Third option is to hitch around, which in my opinion is NOT an option! We've already done an alternate route due to a fire closure, and because we took the extra days to do so, everyone who skipped it got up and over Mt. Jacinto before the storm, and now we're stuck here waiting for it to stop snowing ahead! Ugh, I want to hike already, not sit around and wait or hike for days on roads! They should call this the Pacific Crest Road Walk..

I hope that our trail karma comes around soon, but for now, I am quite frustrated. I've been poring over my phone all "night" in the tent since 5pm and I still have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow, I just know we have to get out of this town or we'll never make it to Canada! 

It's been raining all day since 3pm I write this at 9pm. After lunch we went to the library where I spent a few hours researching a possible way to get around a fire closure starting at mile 221. Using info from an alternate someone else had taken, I ended up printing 7 pages off of google maps and I'm able to piece them together, I think it will work!

But ugh, a 45 mile road walk just to go around 10 closed miles of the PCT is not my favorite! Sorry, I'm ranting, more about this later...

Sorry for being such a bummer on this post. The whole afternoon has been filled with frustrations and let downs, we're freezing cold in our soaked tent, we've been in this town for almost 3 whole days total, and we're ready to leave already! 

It's hard because it feels like we're being punished for doing the "right thing" in our minds. Not saying that anyone else is doing it wrong by hitching around these problem areas, but Claire and I strongly share the passion of wanting to complete this THRUhike in one continuos footpath from Mexico to Canada. 

Cross your fingers for us tomorrow, it's easy to be so bummed down here in a small tent in a rainy valley, but who knows, it might be way better up there than anyone is speculating from the comforts of a computer and desk. Whatever we decide to do, we'll be safe and make wise decisions  tomorrow when we are faced with them.

-Thanks for reading!