The sweet wonder of a shower!

Yesterday afternoon Tim and I hiked down the switch-backing Devil's Slide Trail, to make our way into our first real town stop.  Idyllwild, California. 

It really is beautiful here.

 As you walk through huge Ponderosa Pines with redish, jig-saw-puzzle-piece bark, slog your way through snow piles and across crisp, clear water flowing over granite, it is easy to forget that LA and San Diego lie just miles away.  Or that yesterday you thought you were going to die as you hiked across blazing hot hills with little more than a few drab bushes and cacti to hide under for relief from the persistant sun.

This small town with friendly waitresses and clerks is a welcome oasis.  The cool mountain air and steep, granite outcroppings hover over you as clouds swirl through the narrow streets. 

And the greatest thing of all, after 8 days walking through dry, dusty, desert, going to bed with sweat and dirt painted bodies, there is a shower waiting for you. 

We will leave town this afternoon, perhaps even try and sneak a 4th town meal in before we hike the 2.5 miles back up Devil's Slide to the PCT!

Tomorrow will be another day of snow, granite and pines, and then it will be back down and into dry desert for us.

Until Big Bear City (our next stop!)

Love,

Kombucha