Day 14 Cedar Springs Junction to Idyllwild

I set my watch alarm for 5:30 and slept right through it. Luckily I woke up at 5:45 anyways. We were just about ready to go out of camp when our leapfrog friends went cruising by and said they’d see us later. We got hiking just a few minutes later to climb and climb and then just when you think you’re at the top and there is no way you can possibly go any higher, BAM, there’s more to climb. At least the temperature is much cooler up here, I wore pants all day for the first time on trail.

We took one 30 minute break in a nice, large camp area right after I bashed my head really good into a down tree. I never wear ball caps and I think now that I’ve been wearing one I have no sense of where my head is. It hurt bad enough that I had to stop hiking and do some deep breathing. I was fine not too long after to start doing some more climbing, yay.

The entire day was climbing over and under downed trees. 19 miles of an obstacle course is exhausting. I haven’t been eating enough for the amount of work we’ve been doing and it finally caught up to me. Feeling weak and a little shaky we decided to stop for lunch under boulders before doing the sketchy rock slide climb around. It was chilly in the shade so I put on layers and wrapped up in my quilt. We had a huge lunch of ramen and tuna wraps, it was delightful.

Only .2 miles down the trail to the dreaded rock slide. It didn’t seem too bad, lots of good holds and pretty good footing except for the loose scree and rocks as you step down at the end. The scariest part of it is that if you miss a step there is nothing to save you and you will go flying down the side of the mountain. I went first and thought I did okay with it. Jake took a video where you can definitely tell I am being the most cautious. I only have a picture of him at the end because I didn’t want to make him more nervous. Of course there is a downed tree right as you get done climbing around the rocks.

More climbing and obstacles were in store until we got to a more wooded area close to our next water source. There was also snow! Such a difference from what we’ve experienced all week. I stuck a snowball in my sleeve to cool me down. We got to the stream and I made myself drink an entire liter of icy water before we left. Only 4.5 miles to the trailhead where we could hopefully get a 2.5 mile ride to town.

The spur trail to the parking lot was the longest 2.5 miles down I have ever walked. We were trying to hurry because we weren’t sure if we could catch someone, all the restaurants close at 8 and we really needed pizza. As we got to the lot it wasn’t looking promising but we kept going down towards the road and heard someone chirp their car. Woot, humans!

We saw two guys getting things around their suv and stopped to ask if they were headed to town. As luck would have it they were but they wanted to finish their beers before and offered us some. That beer was delicious! Parker and Wyatt were more than generous and such friendly guys. We have a lot of paying it forward to get to!

Once in town we quickly checked in to the Idyllwild Inn and called to order pizza from a place around the corner. We ran over to the grocery for some drinks and snacks, picked up the pizza and then sat on the floor with our feet propped up watching TV, a life of luxury. Showers finally happened and then collapsing into a super comfy bed. It was a great day!