Week 2: Onward to Even More Desert

From a water source at the turn to ranchita to the town of idyllwild for a total of 80ish miles. This week has been quite the journey. It has begun to feel less of a backpacking trip and more of a proper thruhike. The mileages havent been too harsh on my body, basically no blisters and nothing is really hurting, knees are still getting stronger but that is required and expected. One unfortunate thing, is the majority of the people around me got some sort of stomach bug (unsure what) and so we put in some lower milage days for them or some of them even got rides farther down the trail to give themselves time to recover. This week also had some of the gnarliest trail so far. Some 5,000+ ft elevation change days. This section also had the classic forest fire followed by high winds, so there were a lot of underbrush and downed trees to climb over or under. Climbed up into the San Jacinto Wilderness which was a welcome environmental change from the previous desert. I am really looking forward to the sierras and cascades. No major wildlife encounters, saw a couple rattlesnakes, but mostly just small critters and lots of bugs. Still moving along :) hope you enjoy these pictures.