The First Mountain
5/13 - Big Bear Lake - Mile 266
Earlier this week, I -- along with my hiking buddies Door and Kidska (remember them from last newsletter?)-- made it over the first major hurdle of the hike: Mount San Jacinto. In normal years, it's a steep but not particularly notable climb. This year, though, it was mostly covered in snow, making microspikes a near-necessity for people who don't want to fall. Some PCT hikers have been so worried about the conditions that they skipped that section of the hike altogether, worried that doing it might be too dangerous.
Like most things on the internet, we figured those fears were a little overblown, so we started the long climb up and over the mountain after our rest day in Idyllwild. There were some slightly scary parts, sure, but there weren't any points where my hiking crew or I felt it was too dangerous to continue, or regretted attempting it. And eventually, after three or four days, we made it over, and headed back to the desert, without much incident at all.
That's not to say there weren't challenges. My hands got sore from driving my ice axe into the ground and holding onto it to keep me from falling during some of the sketchier traverses. The nights we were on the mountain were pretty cold, dipping down to around freezing. While that firmed up the snow for the morning, making it relatively easy to walk on, by 10AM the sun turned once hard-earned ice into slippery slush that brought a lot of us to our butts. We also had to contend with dozens of trees that were knocked down across the trail, scrambling over, under, and around them. Progress was so slow, we only hiked 8 miles one day, compared to our usual 15 or so.
Another hiker we were with fell a few times, though thankfully not on anything particularly dangerous. We did have to cross a few "no fall" zones though.
Also during our hike up, down, and away from the mountain we often had to deal with winds strong enough to rip our tent stakes out of the ground. Despite all that, I'm still glad we tackled it. The views made it worthwhile, and it was good to get practice for the Sierras, which are looming far (but ever closer) in the distance. It's also nice to have the first big challenge of the trail in the rear-view.
Two other milestones: at some point on the mountain, this became the furthest hike I've ever done. (I did the Tahoe Rim Trail last August, which was 180-ish miles.) More importantly, yesterday we reached mile 265.2, the 10% mark of the PCT. Obviously that leaves quite a bit left, but it's a decent chunk.
Looking ahead, there are some more difficult parts coming up: getting past Mt. Baden-Powell at mile 377 will likely involve some more snow travel, though we're hoping there'll be some significant meltage in the week-ish it'll take us to get there. After that, the next big challenge will be the LA Aquaduct at around mile 540 -- it's a scorching section through the Mojave desert, with very little water.
All of that is in the future though. Tomorrow, we're planning on hitching a ride out of town and only hiking a couple of miles. Then, it's full steam ahead towards Wrightwood, with a quick detour to the McDonalds and Subway that's only a tiny bit off trail. I hope the McFlurry machine is working!