Jay and I have been stuck in Idylwild for 4 days waiting for his new boots. I hope they come today.
We have had an interesting hike now that we are in section B. We finished Section A at warner Springs. We started out the next morning running a few errands then getting on the trail around 9:30. Unfortunately we went the wrong way. We hiked about two miles before we realized MY error. By the time we got back to our starting point it was lunch time. we had a lovely lunch under a shade tree and then began our hike. Up the hill we went following the Aqua caliente River. We climbed and climbed. We were at about 1500 feet above our start when I realized we hadn't enough water to camp and hadn't seen any for quite some time. I decided to run back down the hill to the river where we left it. Jay looked for camp. 2 hours later we had a lovely dry camp above the trail and plenty of water. the next morning we headed out to discover the river full of water in a 10 minute walk from camp. We crossed the river a few more times then climbed some more. Finally we came out on a ridge. We followed that awhile among darkening skies. We camped on the high ridge (about 5, 500 feet) It was a cold and rainy night. At dusk a couple walked through our camp. Apparently we were just a mile from a community in the valley below. They were very nice. The next morning dawned cold and misty. We got out of camp around 8 AM, but we couldn't see much but the wonderland of boulders we were hiking through. About 9:30 a breeze started up. The mist began to thin but OMG it was cold. At 10 Am we pulled out more warm clothes and the camp stove and made some hot chocolate to warm us up. The day got windier and windier. We kept climbing finally topping a peak. The wind was so intense it blew me over a couple of times. The gusts felt like someone was grabbing your pack and shaking you. I thought Jay was going to take a trip over the rainbow like Dorothy. We made it over the mountain and down to a drainage. Jay and I pushed toward our next resupply. We wound up having a horrible campsite, rocky, steep with no place that was flat. We unpacked the packs just as the rain started. Brrr. Cooked dinner then early to bed and the warm tent. In the morning my first comment was "what's hat chunky stuff on the rain fly?" Snow of course. We had about an inch and a half of snow. A cold breakfast with snow falling on us and we wanted a town bad! The sleeping bags were wet, the tent was wet. We decided to bail out to Anza. It was 3 miles to where we hooked up to the Tule Canyon road then 8 miles to the Anza campground. There is a levely trail angel that lives at the campground. larry drove us and our new thru hiker friends Pam and Sonja to Idylwild where we picked up resupply. Where we still are, waiting for Jays boots. Today we are heading to sectionC, B being too high and snowy.
Our next town stop will be Big bear lake. Any mail or packages can be sent to the Big bear lake Hostel c/o vicky mattson http://adventurehostel.com/
We will post photos at the next oppurtunity we have.
Vicky and Jayhawk
Whew, you guys had me sweating proverbial bullets. By my reckoning, you were somewhere up on the desert divide, turning into hikercicles. Glad to hear you're safe and warm. Ned of Mtn. Ed is concerned about a woman named Karen Keller. If you bumped into her, and can drop me a reassuring line, I'll pass it on to Ned. - eckert
ReplyDeleteGlad you are safe. Missed you today. Worked out with a friend, but she's not as competitive:)
ReplyDeleteFionn misses Jay too. Take care of yourselves.
I'm glad you two are being cautious. You two are fortunate that you started early in the season and can afford to wait for equipment and to recover mentally and physically. Oh yeah, I'm with Jeff. If you see Karen, please tell her I said hi. We met at the trailhead and hiked together for a few weeks.
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