Big Bear -> Idyllwild

Foggy hiking out of Big Bear at sunset
Hit the 2400 mile mark!
Next evening, made our way into Mission Creek. There was a large flood here a few years ago that completely washed away the trail. So these days it's a bit of a choose your own adventure to make it through this ~12 mile section of missing trail. Hikers can choose to follow the creek bed or stay on a social trail up on the rim of the canyon. 
I started up on the rim of the canyon but that trail quickly became a sandy, eroding, cliff traverse that I was not enjoying. I opted to drop down into the creek bed where I ran into Mudfoot, who was walking North, not a great sign. He'd turned around a bit ahead at a waterfall he'd deemed to dangerous to downclimb solo but was willing to take another look at it with me there. When we got there I thought it looked doable so I tested it without my pack on and it was fairly easy so I climbed back up and grabbed my pack for the real attempt. Made it down all good. This picture is Mudfoot climbing down after he'd handed his pack off to me halfway down.
Unfortunately after all that effort to make it down the first waterfall we ran into a much more dangerous downclimb 10 minutes further down the creek bed. Assessed this one and both decided we needed to find another way.
We scrambled up the side of the canyon until we hit that social trail that runs along the rim, at this point the trail was actually very nice, almost like the normal PCT. We hiked along that trail until dark when we ran into Tigger and Mclovin again and camped with them. Here's sunset up along the rim of the canyon.
Next morning back in the creek bed for the last 7 miles before the trail resumes. This section was much less eventful than the previous night, just chill flat walking through the wash.

Made it back to where the trail resumes and were greeted with our next challenge looming in the distance, Mt San Jacinto
We've come a long way from Canada!
I-10 and the town of Cabazon off in the distance
Night hiked to I-10 in hopes of making it to In-N-Out before they closed!
My first time at In-N-Out
Review: Probably best bang for your buck fast food burger. Oh and some locals bought us milkshakes too!
Got a couple extra snacks for the San Jacinto climb the next day before heading back to the trail
Cowboy camped maybe half a mile south of I-10 to set us up to start the climb early. Going southbound
San Jacinto is the longest continuous climb on the entire PCT. The trail crosses I-10 at ~1100 ft and if you choose to take the side trail to the summit (which ofc I was doing) you'll climb to 10,834 ft over ~25 miles. To make it more difficult, there's only 2 water sources on the climb and they're separated by 20 miles and 8k ft of gain. I carried 4 liters up the mountain.
Only 200 miles left of the trail
Views throughout the climb
Entering the San Jacinto wilderness
Loved these rocks, at the higher elevations it started to feel like we were back in the Sierra!

Looking over Palm Springs
Camped about 5 miles from the summit and made a push to the top the next morning. Here's Mclovin on the summit! You can see I-10 where we started the previous day way down there!
Obligatory summit snack
More views heading down the Devil's Slide trail out to Idyllwild
Camped at the state park in town, another great laundry fit
Mclovin downing a whole 2 liter bottle of squirt outside the market in Idyllwild

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