Spoon and I made it in 4 days from Julian to Idyllwild. And boy did I stink when I got here. We did days of 18, 19, 23, and 14 miles on the way.
The first, from Scissors Crossing was the hottest through open dessert. The “gate 3” water cache was critical to our success.
The second day was hot, but not as bad. We met and hiked with Steppenwolf, a 30-something guy from Washington state. Saw Eagle rock and took a short break at the Warner Springs community center. Monty and Count, two AT thru hikers were there. Count has gone home now with terrible blisters. We also met Brittany and Bigfoot and others.
Day three was our longest. Starting at 4:30 AM we did 15 miles to Mike Herrera’s house in the desert where we got a burger and water from a tank. Moving on we did 8 more miles to a campsite. We met a young British couple and raced them for two miles to get a good campsite, only to find out they were heading on and we had the site to ourselves. Windy that night. Set up my tarp for the first time and realized I need 8, not 4, stakes.
Into Idyllwild we did 14 miles. Hitched to Paradise Cafe and had a ton of food. At the outfitter I bought a lighter color shirt for the desert, and some tent stakes. Met tons of hikers in town. Bombadil is one we’ve seen some.
Lots of other stuff happening, but I’m too tired to type it all out. So I’ll add some pictures.