Today was a fun day in spite of a lot of elevation gain and some minor gear failures. Extra Credit, Nugget, Karl (now Histogram or Histo for short, and yes, he has been creating a histogram of his daily miles!), and I peeled out of the campground early. We wanted to allow plenty of time for our climb of San Jacinto Peak and we thought it might take a while to get a hitch up to the Devil's Slide trail head. However, after only about 10 minutes of road walking, a super nice guy named Larry picked us all up, and we were dropped off at the trail head in no time. I think we started hiking a little before 6:30.
We made great time going up the Devil's Slide Trail. Even though we gained a lot of elevation, it seemed much quicker than it had on our way into Idyllwild. Once we reached the top of the Devil's Slide, we rejoined the PCT for a short distance before veering off for the San Jacinto climb. The trek up San Jacinto was beautiful, and the summit was airy. We were really glad we took the time to do it. We encountered a fair amount of snow but were still able to move efficiently on the way up. We had a few route finding issues on the way down (we weren't retracing our steps but were instead trying to rejoin the PCT farther along), but we eventually located the trail. I found the off-trail travel to be a welcome change of pace from the usually cruiser PCT.
I had two annoying gear malfunctions today but luckily neither are too serious. First, my Sawyer Squeeze pouch burst when I accidentally dropped it while it was full of water. Fortunately, I'm also carrying a 32 ounce Platypus bladder that Histo gave me a while back when I was looking to increase my capacity, and it's also compatible with the filter. The Platypus is half the size of the pouch I'd been using so it isn't quite as convenient, but it will definitely get me through until my resupply stop in Big Bear. I also broke the tip and basket off one of my trekking poles when I had a minor fall on a slabby rock covered with some loose pebbles. I'm still able to use the pole, it definitely isn't as effective on soft ground or snow now. Hopefully there'll be a good gear shop in Big Bear!
Big descent ahead tomorrow....I think we're going to drop well over 6,000 feet before heading up into the San Bernardino Mountains.
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