Day 11: Monday, May 7

(Stud) Today's hike started much in the same way as yesterday's ended--hiking along a narrow path that hugged the side of the mountain with a steep, long drop and expansive views. It seems that this is desciptive of much of the PCT so I guess it doesn't bare repeating every day. One thing we were seeing for the first time today though were massive pines. Dwight says the guide book refers to this species as the big cone pine. What impressed me the most about them was the bark. It has such depth and dimension--it seems with each passing year the tree becomes more of a sculptural masterpiece.

The trail was mostly downhill today. That was a wlcome change from yesterday. We accidentally took a detour off the PCT for a while--which we never would have known until it rejoined the PCT and some other hikers pointed out our error.

We took the 4 1/2 mile Devil's Slide Junction Trail to Idyllwild. We had planned to get off the trail here to resupply--and visit with Dwight's bother who lives in nearby Hemet. Dwight, who was hiking ahead of Leslie and I, chased down a couple of locals--Ken and Jan Steel--who had been day hiking. When we got to the trail head they kindly offered to give us a ride into town. Enroute they pointed out all the important places to hikers--the outfitter, motels, restaurants and post office. We couldn't have met friendlier town ambassadors.

While Leslie collected her mail and checked into the hotel, Dwight and I headed to a local pizza joint to eat. After that we hitched on to Hemet. It took us about 40 minutes to get a ride, but eventually 2 hispanic ladies--Maria and Marianna--gave us a lift. They were headed home from work at a local cable mfg plant. Maria, who was driving actually turned around and circled back to pick us up since we hadn't noticed her car when she first beeped at us. It was a 40 mile drive and she wouldn't accept any gas money.

Ater we arrived at Maria's house, Marianna gave us a lift to Walmart--which she thought might be near Tim's house based on Dwight's description of where he lives. Turns out we were only about a mile away.
At Walmart, I got a $12.95 haircut because my hair was quickly becoming one big dreadlock. Now I'm back to super sort hair and more gray than I like to believe that I have. Nice that there are no mirrors on trail.

Dwight and I wandered around Hemet trying to find Tim's house until a security guard kicked us out of a gated neighborhood. I guess we looked liked a couple of homeless folk and turns out we were not in the right place. So back to Walmart we went until Tim's girlfriend Brittney picked us up when she got home from work.

At Tim's we had much needed showers, a good meal and a nice soft bed waiting for us. Beautiful.