The reason for going to Idyllwild was so we could stay in a motel for two nights. We stayed at the Idyllwild Inn, very handy to the centre of this quaint little town.

Never has a shower felt so good. As well as a comfortable bed, good meals and laundry, we have resupplied with things from the shops (including food and micro-spikes for the next section). Our boxes mailed from San Diego were waiting here, so we did some re-sorting.

We have now caught up with our blog posts. By the way, thank you all for your comments and encouragements – we appreciate them all even if we don’t respond to each one.

The morning dawned clear and the view over the valley below was beautiful.

More hiking along the ridges and at times we were slowed down where snow still covered the trail. At one point a tree had fallen just on the corner of a switchback. Losing sight of the path, we bush bashed for about half an hour till we got back on track.

At Saddle Ridge we breaked for lunch and had our permits checked by a ranger.

Then we left the PCT and took a side trail of 2.6 miles down to the town of Idyllwild.