Sonntag, Mai 07, 2006
day 11, 4th of May
Live Oak Spring to Idyllwild
STAIRMASTER DAY!
First we overslept and didn't have breakfast but hiked uphill that extra mile to the PCT.
We were mentally prepared for a hard day with lots of elevation and were hoping to get as close as possible to Saddle Junction from where the descent beginns to Idyllwild.
So we took off, breakfasted two hours later as the landscape became more and more breathtaking. The trail kept climbing, we were to reach an elevation of 82200 feet/ ~2700m. I was happy that as we gained elevation the air was cool so the climbs were not even more demanding than they already were. We had gradients of up to 9.
The mountains, the rocks and the trail seemed to me very much like in the Alps and so very BEAUTIFUL. I am not much of a poet to describe it more colourful than in capital letters.
In spite of the ups and downs I felt great and in my mind I played with the idea to start descending to Idyllwild and camp along the way if Carsten was OK with the plan.
And then we hit the snow. The snow covered much of the trail but for the first part it was easy to follow fresh footprints and hit little patches of trail again. Until we got stuck and until we went over and over again over a certain piece of trail in order to figure out where to continue. Walking in snow uses up some energy, I can tell.
That was when we heard Poscicle and Zack. So together with Popscicle I checked the map again and then just followed the compass bearing cross country untill we hit the trail again.
At Saddle Junction Carsten agreed to descend to Idyllwild (the idea of a hot shower in the morning was unresistable) so the four of us almost ran down the never ending trail.
On the road to town, we were all limping hard and in spite of the pain I had to laugh out loud at how sorry we all looked. We could barely walk! But we made it to the campground and to one grocery store where I indulged in FRUIT!!! :-))
We limped back to the campground and went straight to bed. ¶ 15:34
STAIRMASTER DAY!
First we overslept and didn't have breakfast but hiked uphill that extra mile to the PCT.
We were mentally prepared for a hard day with lots of elevation and were hoping to get as close as possible to Saddle Junction from where the descent beginns to Idyllwild.
So we took off, breakfasted two hours later as the landscape became more and more breathtaking. The trail kept climbing, we were to reach an elevation of 82200 feet/ ~2700m. I was happy that as we gained elevation the air was cool so the climbs were not even more demanding than they already were. We had gradients of up to 9.
The mountains, the rocks and the trail seemed to me very much like in the Alps and so very BEAUTIFUL. I am not much of a poet to describe it more colourful than in capital letters.
In spite of the ups and downs I felt great and in my mind I played with the idea to start descending to Idyllwild and camp along the way if Carsten was OK with the plan.
And then we hit the snow. The snow covered much of the trail but for the first part it was easy to follow fresh footprints and hit little patches of trail again. Until we got stuck and until we went over and over again over a certain piece of trail in order to figure out where to continue. Walking in snow uses up some energy, I can tell.
That was when we heard Poscicle and Zack. So together with Popscicle I checked the map again and then just followed the compass bearing cross country untill we hit the trail again.
At Saddle Junction Carsten agreed to descend to Idyllwild (the idea of a hot shower in the morning was unresistable) so the four of us almost ran down the never ending trail.
On the road to town, we were all limping hard and in spite of the pain I had to laugh out loud at how sorry we all looked. We could barely walk! But we made it to the campground and to one grocery store where I indulged in FRUIT!!! :-))
We limped back to the campground and went straight to bed. ¶ 15:34
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