PCT Day 12 & 13 -Idyllwild to mile 190.5
April 16-17, 2025
Total PCT miles: 11.1
Non PCT miles: 2.5
Total: 13.6 miles / 21.8 km
Total elevation gain: 4675
Steps: 38405
Zero day in Idyllwild
Zero days are glorious and after 11 days of hiking with no rest this one was well deserved. The term zero days just mean no hiking but unfortunately it doesn’t mean you don’t have a list of town chores to complete. There’s laundry, gear maintenance, resupplying for the next leg, calling family, loading up on calories and other random tasks. Because of all this there really isn’t a lot of rest time.
Idyllwild is a really cool small mountain town that is very hiker friendly. The people are amazing and everything you need is easily walkable. The only down side to town days and zero days is they get real expensive real fast. Even more so when your paying in Canadian Dollars or arrive in any town near Coachella on a weekend.
Day 13
My left calf is still bothering me despite all the stretching and self massage I could manage. If it was cheaper to stay in town I would have definitely considered another zero.
I made arrangements with a local trail angle named Grumpy to give me a ride to the trail head at 0930 am this morning. This gave me plenty of time to have a good breakfast and ensure i had everything packed and didn’t need to rush.
I was at the Devil Slide trail head at 10am and started the 2.5 mile 2000 ft climb back to the PCT. Name aside the trail is actually really nice with reasonable switch backs going all the way up. I reached the PCT at saddle junction and was on my way. There definitely was less snow and slush than when I descended from here just the other day.
I had made the decision to not climb Mount San Jacinto due to a number of reasons: didn’t want to do the 2000 feet additional accent, it’s not part of the Official PCT, i had already done it in 2018, and I only have 5 days of food to get me to Big Bear which is about 90 ish miles away on trail. In 2018 I spent the night at the summit and had crystal clear views with an amazing sunset. Today everything seems hazy so I’m confident my old memories of the peak would be better than any new ones I would make today.
Fortunately there is a lot of water on this part of the trail due to the recent snow and ongoing meting but for some reason I decided to carry much more than I needed. I do really need to get better at determining how much water I actually need so I can lighten the load from time to time.
Eventually I reached near the area where in 2018 I made the decision to call of that adventure. It’s wild being here again it feels familiar but doesn’t look at all how I remember it. Memory is a funny thing.
I met up with a group of hikers who have dubbed themselves the Coyote pack. They named themselves es thus because apparently coyotes often go off on their own and rejoin. Which is fitting for how a trail family works. I made camp with them tonight and they are an interesting group including a paramedic from France. Were at a designated camp site that has a fire ring so someone started a campfire Which is an unusual occurrence on the PCT. It’s cold tonight – low of 4 degrees here at 8000 ft and two of them are cowboy camping. Hopefully the fire keeps them warm.
Tomorrow is 20 miles all down hill. I’m sure my legs will protest the entire time!
Amazing views of the mountains, man! Crazy to see snow this far south, there’s no snow left here but then again I aint up at altitude. I’m headed out to Gatineau park this weekend, curious to see if there’ll be snow up at the top of that mild peak.
I’ve been watching Coachella performances for the past week and a bit. Funny to think that festival is causing so many waves of disruption out along your nature hike lol.