Arrived in Idyllwild, CA after navigating part of the first fire closure alternate route. And by navigating I mean mostly skipping. We’re enjoying being a couple thousand feet higher, in cooler temps, and surrounded by pines.  This will be our first “zero day” – for those of you not familiar with long distance hiking it means a rest day with zero miles of progress.  We’ve come ~151 miles over the past 11 days and we feel good, but like with any endourance sport, rest days are important.

Day 6 – We had an easy hitch out of Julian back to Scissors Crossing with a musician from Michigan who said tons of people in Julian are from Michigan.  After waiting out the heat we decided to do some night hiking from around 5-11pm.  We camped at mile 90.4, a tent site on a ridge 2-3 feet up and just to the side of the trail.

Day 7 – After night hiking we still ended up getting up around 5:45am to continue on.  The only real notable and exciting part of the day was hitting mile marker 100!  We camped pretty much right after at mile 101.1.

 

Day 8 – Hiked in the midst of cows and blazing sun to arrive at Eagle Rock, a pretty neat landmark.  Went into Warner Springs, CA to pick up a package, grab a hot meal, then hiked a few more miles up trail to mile 112.5 where we camped.

 

Day 9 – camped at mile 131.6 after our longest day yet at a measly 19.1 miles.  Starting to feel ready to push more than 15 miles/day.

Day 10 – camped at mile 148.2.  Got in about 17 miles today in the early morning and afternoon shade.  Windy/chilly at a couple points.  Stopped at a water cache called “Walden” with cold soda, a 500 gal tank of water, library, and a couple picnic tables.

Day 11 – 151.8 Idyllwild, CA.

In the next couple weeks we’ll traverse up to Big Bear Lake/City and then start heading West through the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests.

Still no blisters on my feet.