Today was everything I imagined this adventure could be when I decided to do it. As I write this in camp I am completely exhausted and a little thirsty considering I conserved water today as there was very little to speak of on the trail. For the past several days we’ve been crisscrossing mountains in San Bernadino National Forest with one majestic Peak, standing 5000 feet taller then the rest, in our sights. I woke up this morning with a jolt of adrenaline in my blood, today we will go higher than ever before. Today we will see snow for the first time. Today we will scale up this mountain and face 60 mph wind gusts. If we are careful, prepared, determined, and stubborn enough we will make it to the last crest before the peak of Mount Jacinto.
This is a lofty goal as it’s 17 miles away and we need to hike out of our canyon valley home that we hiked down to last night. The total elevation gain is 9000 feet as we are constantly going up and coming back down ridges. This is about three times more gain than ever done. The hiking was difficult today, dangerous in some spots, and the trail was often covered with giant pines that have fallen do to a not so distant fire. The views were absolutely majestic and stunning. From the ridges we could see the smaller mountains that we conquered last week and a town below, this is probably Idyllwild. The air temperature was cold today and the constant wind kept us chilly all day. As we breaker for lunch we still had 9 miles in order to meet our goal and I didn’t think we could do it, we’d have to pull up short which would be OK. As the day went on the miles and landscape became harder and in some cases unforgiving. One mistake would be one too many and maybe the last. Today was a true challenge, our first real challenge. We made our goal, we stayed safe, felt alive, and were amazed by the scenery we saw, felt, smelled, breathed, and finally conquered. At least for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment