Its snowing outside as we wait for our ride back to the trail outside Big Bear City. Others are a bit nervous about the snow but I'm not really too phased by it. Bring it on, I say! The trail is still calling us back. About once a week we have to stay overnight in town and honestly it is getting harder to sleep in a real bed inside. The sound of the wind and the cool, fresh breeze across my face as I shut my eyes to sleep is hard to beat.
We've experienced quite a range of weather and climes in the last week--
We summited San Jacinto Peak at over 10,000 feet and had to hike through a lot of snow pack and use all our map navigation skills and good luck to get back to the PCT. The side trail loop to the summit had not been used enough yet to know where the trail was under the snow pack. Every once and we while we were rewarded with a glimpse of trail tread so we knew we were on the right track. It was a big confidence booster since we know it won't be the last time we run into snow. When we finally got to the summit, it was awesome to have a 360 degree view of where we had already hiked and where we were heading. Where we were heading was down to the San Gorgonio Pass which is at around 1000 feet, just outside Palm Springs. Within less than 36 hours we went from a snow-capped peak to a hot desert floor. Crazy!
I'm so thankful for those who worked hard to get the PCT trail together. The incredible expanse of wilderness that we are traversing, climbing and descending through is just at times overwhelming. We are only a 10th of the way through the trip and we've already seen so much that few people get to see, just because of the remoteness of the hike at times. Until the next post...~Maya
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