Hikey Mike

Day 13 – Zero in Idyllwild

Today was another day of relaxing and planning for the day ahead. With a room to myself for the first time since I left the UK, I was able to have a very relaxing morning before walking down the hill to join for a group breakfast cooked by an expert team of 6 hikers, we had to squeeze just about every table and chair from the Airbnb into the dining room to eat together but it made for a fun morning

I spent the rest of the morning completing my ‘town chores’, which include resupplying food for the next stretch, going to the pharmacy to top up on any toiletries or tablets that are running low, laundry and going to the local gear store to make any necessary tweaks (I had decided to upgrade my small sit mat to a full size mat so that when I’m taking a break I can lie down in the shade; a decision I am so far very happy with)

After this I was nearly tempted in by the once a day screening at the local cinema, but instead decided to go back to my hotel to watch Arsenal in the champions league and to enjoy an afternoon nap.

I ventured back down into the town for the evening, enjoying a Cinco De Mayo special at the local Mexican restaurant (which was pretty lucky timing as I didn’t even realise it was the 5th May that day) and then went back to prepare for what would be the start of a hard section tomorrow

Day 14 – 19 miles

Today started the climb up Mt San Jacinto, a near 11,000ft mountain that would be the highest mountain we’d cross in the first two months of the trail.

I got dropped off back to the trail by Laena, a brand new trail angel who has only started picking people up in the last 3 weeks but has found her job as a delivery driver works well with ferrying hikers between trail and town.

Luckily where I came off the trail was also the site of Paradise Valley Cafe, a restaurant and bar largely targeting truckers and bikers but is also perfectly placed for a large breakfast before the ascent

The climbing today was steeper and more continuous that it had been so far, covering nearly 5000ft of elevation over the 19 miles. While I would have preferred a slightly shorter day, as usual we were restricted by water sources so I would need to push on.

After a pretty torturous final climb, the water spring was at the bottom of a steep 500ft descent, so I knew if I went down there, I would be camping down there, without the energy to get back up. Most people had the same idea. By the time I was down there every single possible space to camp in was taken, so it was finally time to face my fears and cowboy camp. ‘Cowboy camping’ is sleeping just on a ground sheet without the rest of your tent, with only the sleeping pad and quilt separating you from the wind (and more concerningly to me, the insects).

With space very limited, four of us ended up sleeping shoulder to shoulder, watching over the lights of Palm Springs below us and huddling to stay warm, but in reality the night was pretty mild. Thinking I would be up scared awake all night, I was distracted by the stars for 30 minutes before passing out from the strain of the day.

Day 15 – 9 miles

I had dreamt that there were mice on my bag at night but was too tired to turn around and check, luckily when I finally woke up to sunrise at 5:30am I was happy to find all my things intact. Despite my initial fears, that had been my favourite night on trail so far.

Unfortunately that joy wouldn’t last long. As soon I got up I felt tired and achey, which was a new sensation for the mornings since I’d started. Putting it down to the long day the day before, I set off but very quickly struggled to get back up the hill that I had descended the prior evening and spent an hour travelling the first mile. I continued at this speed for most of the morning and stopped early for lunch after only 5 miles, feeling very lethargic and out of breath. The day had been a steady uphill but should have been much easier than the day before so I was starting to worry, but took a long lunch to recover.

Feeling exactly the same after lunch, I wanted to stop but knew I had to go at least 9 miles in the day to reach a water source and so spent the whole afternoon slowly plodding up the mountain, getting more tired and annoyed. Just half a mile away from the water source, I did what all good hikers do in times of adversity; sat down and burst in to tears. I felt completely out of my depth and defeated by what had been a relatively small climb that day, with sudden fears that I would have to end the trip early or take time off.

It was only at this point I started to think through it logically, I was at 8000ft having climbed from below 3000ft just 24 hours before, I was feeling tired with no sense of hunger and no desire to drink water, all symptoms that we had been warned could be linked to elevation sickness at these heights just two weeks earlier.

Knowing that it would be 10 miles before we began to drop elevation, I slowly made my way to the water source and camped there, deciding to take it easy tomorrow while my body adapted.

Day 16 – 6 miles

Not feeling better the next morning, I left with the plan to just get as far as I could without pushing myself too hard. After a mile, I reached 9000ft and the fork for the trail leading up to San Jacinto Peak appeared. This was something I had wanted to do before setting off, however it was not officially on the PCT route and would require an ascent up to 10,800ft which in my condition felt like a risk not worth taking so I decided to skip the climb. At 9,000ft I had started to become slightly lightheaded so was glad to quickly descend back to lower ground and after just 6 miles, I reached a camp ground and felt all the energy leave my body. I had napped twice already during the day and upon reaching the campground, fell asleep a third time before 4pm. I set up camp there, with one final climb in the morning before I would be able to descend down the mountain.

Day 17 – 19 miles

I woke up at 8,000ft and felt surprisingly okay. Easily getting up and packing my tent away, I was quietly confident I was starting to get past the worst of the elevation sickness and that was confirmed with a 1,000ft climb at the start of the day, doing it much easier than the day before and feeling okay up at 9,000ft

Typically now I’d adjusted to the altitude, it was time to start descending, and I spent most of the day going down, over 6,000ft across the day. The lower I got, my hunger and thirst began to return so was reassured that my issues over the previous days had solely been elevation related.

The day was pretty straight forward, and now my speed was back up to usual I pushed to make the day as short as possible tomorrow, with a hostel just off the trail only 9 miles away. Sounds like it should be easy!

Day 18 – 9 miles

With such a short day, I didn’t set an alarm, and woke up at 7am suddenly realising I was extremely sweaty. Thinking this seemed strange, I checked my phone to see that it was 30c and would only be getting hotter throughout the day. The elevation over the previous few days had hidden the fact a heat wave was coming in the desert below and was due to peak over the next two days.

I quickly packed my things and rushed off down the remainder of the mountain, reaching the desert floor just an hour later. Ahead of me was a 6 mile walk with two litres of already hot water and a slog across very sandy terrain.

By 9am it was 35c and I was struggling, with one litre left I was conserving as much as possible but I was sweating more than I had all trip. Ecstatic to find a cooler full of Gatorade on the side of the road left as trail magic, I quickly downed one, rubbed some of the ice over myself and decided to power on to the end.

I reached the highway tunnel at 11am which was the end of the day, and was happy to find trail angels set up handing out food, but more importantly, ice cold drinks. Having finished the last of my water 20 minutes earlier and the temperature 37c, I slumped into the chair and took everything offered to try and cool off.

Over the next hour, people came in looking worse and worse, with one woman bright red and about to collapse after getting lost. People’s thermometers recorded as high as 106F, around 41c with the heat even in the shade unbearable.

Once recovered, I ran the two minutes to the hostel I would be staying at and quickly got into the air conditioning. The hostel was more of a home, where the owner still lived and rented out half the rooms in the house. Fourteen of us stayed there that night, with plans made for the next section and beers shared out. One of the hikers was only doing a short section, and so as it was his last day, decided to buy hot dogs, chips and guacamole for the group, with us all sharing dinner before I went to my room, the garage that I would be sharing with the cats