It’s not all rainbows and sunshine.

Position: 33 deg 44.75’N, 116 deg 42.63’W

Distance Travelled: 288km

Have a good time, all the time.

That’s my philosophy, Marty

– This is Spinal Tap

Well, here we are.  Another week later and another 165km down the trail.  Only 3991 km to go! 

We are in the lovely, friendly, town of Idyllwild, California where banners reading ‘Welcome PCT hikers’ hang all around town.  I continue to be amazed by the kindness and generosity of strangers we meet along the trail and in towns. Today, a woman approached us in the post office and asked us if we were hikers and then handed us each a small zip lock of tasty oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  

This last week has been very challenging and my gratitude to the kindness shown to us can not be expressed enough.  Technically, as Steve and I are taking turns writing this blog I should of written the last entry.  However, on our way into Julian I developed a strain in my left leg that left me in a lot of pain, solar dermatitis (looks like hives) on my hands and nothing nice to write… Since Julian my leg has gotten better, the dermatitis is still a bit of and issue, but now that I have a burger and a couple cold beers in my belly I feel content enough to share what we have seen this past week.

Early this week we hit a milestone.  100 miles!

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself… 

The scenery continues to be beautiful

And the desert continues to be both harsh and fascinating.

The Easter bunny came a day early for this constrictor snake we came across on the trail.  

But as I said, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine… it’s more just sunshine. Really, really, really, hot sunshine.

Things were looking dismal for a while.  Steve’s shoes were causing pain and blisters, it was terribly hot and I’m not going to lie, we were both thinking of calling it quits.  Feeling broken, we hobbled into the small community of Warner Springs which consisted of a community centre, a gas station, golf course, and post office.  We sat in the sun outside the community centre wondering what the heck we were going to do.  Then I noticed an airstream camper parked under a tree playing some tunes.  I wandered over to find a small mobile gear shop!

Conveniently it had everything we needed! Steve got some wider shoes and I found myself some sun gloves!  

But more challenges awaited us.  What really made this past week difficult was having multiple days in a row with no water for nearly 30km.  This caused us to to carry around 9lbs of water each and really ration how much we drink.  Needless to say, with temperatures around 30C we have been a little dehydrated.  If it wasn’t for trail angels building water caches along the trail I don’t think anyone would be able to get through this section of the trail.

This is without a doubt the hardest thing either one of us has ever done.  That being said, after a good proper rest in Idyllwild things are starting to look up.  Steve’s blisters have healed up nicely, my skin is starting to return to normal, and now that we have a hot shower, a good nights sleep in a comfy bed and a few cold beers we are feeling like we still have some more fight left in us. Besides, we are about to go through our first snowy mountain pass! Things are just starting to get interesting and tomorrow is a new day! 

Cheers! From Rachel and Steve