This is ground control to Major Tom...
As I go through the various stages on my journey it feels like the different stages of a rocket as it fights gravity to escape the stratosphere... Stage one, jettison the dog and flat at Hyams Beach. Stage two, jettison the car at my Sister's. Stage three Valdis leaving the trail to go back home and now it is just me in the landing module...
So, as a stranger in a strange land, I continue the journey.
After the brutality of the Anza Borrego mountains in sun and searing heat, I've made it to Idyllwild where the temperature has dropped into single figures! At almost 5,500ft Idyllwild is a beautiful town in the shadow of the San Jacinto mountains and given the weather alert of snow storms, we've taken up residence in a cute wooden cabin for a couple if nights. As well as sitting out the bad weather, the break gives me an opportunity to do washing, sort out food for the next 100 miles and get new shoes! Yep. My Merrells have massacred my feet. I realised that because I had to go up a size to fit my feet in width, my foot was so far back in the shoe that the balls of my feet were striking the shoe too far back and I was getting blisters on blisters. They were not going away and I was taking vitamin I (ibuprofen) most days to deal with the pain.
Anyway, enough of my troubles... Here are the pictures:
Hiker boxes are a source of many things; food, odds and ends and entrrtainment!
Patch recharging at the Warner Springs community centre.
More pretty trails...
America! Fuck yeah. Penguido, who after I complained about the length of a mile replied: "Man, you can't measure freedom in metric."
Some things are beyond explanation... But let's just say that moonshine, tincture and beer were involved...!
This would be the fifth rattlesnake in 10 days!
Randy jammed into a ford focus with three other hikers (with packs!) and the driver on our way to Paradise Valley Cafe for burgers.
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