Monday, May 4th--Day 12

Today was the hardest day yet.

It started out easily enough, with a smooth descent and a brief walk up to the road, where we found some trail magic waiting for us. A man who calls himself Tarzan had set up a large tent with tables and coolers. We walked up, and he handed each of us a slice of watermelon. I have never tasted watermelon so good in my life. Tarzan ran around the tent attending to this or that as we sat and enjoyed the foods he kept supplying us with: Pears, lentil soup, granola, yogurt to put the granola in, orange juice, and so on. As we finally prepared to leave, he cut loose with the most impressive Tarzan yell I've ever heard in person, two feet away.

We left very full, and started climbing right away. The trail took us up steep inclines and over boulders, past fallen trees and over dry creek beds. Occasionally it would dip into a canyon before shooting up another mountainside. The sun was hot, but we were doing fine. Then, we hit a saddle, and from there the trail went into a swift ascent and never looked back. We climbed brutal switchbacks up the mountain only to come out to another climb, at an ever sharper angle. Every time we thought we'd gone as high as we could go, we'd turn a corner and the trail would lead up another, taller mountain. I poured sweat and gasped every breath as I climbed, stabbing the mountain as hard as I could with my poles for being such an awful bastard.

Eventually, we made it to the peak, and we climbed on top of some boulders and yelled as loud as we could, the wind roaring around us. We set up came in a wooded area farther down the trail. I am at the highest elevation I've ever been at. Tomorrow we're going to Idyllwild via Devil's Slide. It sounds ominous, no? Night.