She has huge...tracks of land

Big Bear City! Mile 266, it's starting to feel like I am on a really long hike or something. Even though Idlewild was less than a week ago it was miles of elevation ago as well...To get out of Idlewild we had to climb from 6000ft to 8300ft, then we decided to summit the second highest peak in Southern California and slack packed up to the San Jacinto peak at 10,800+ft. The views were spectacular and not only could we see San Gordinio (where we were headed) but the valley floor about 10,000 feet below us. And yes we did hike all the way down to 1,000 ft to cross a desert. A desert that was as windy and hot as I would imagine satin's crack to be, just to climb back up to about 9,000ft to get to Big Bear. I guess this is how you earn your trail legs for the Sierras...

Lessons learned so far this trip:

1. Siestas are the best invention ever, and to hike in the desert between 11:00am-3:00pm is just stupid.
2. If you have a rock in your shoe, stop and take it out. It's worth it. 
3. It's really hard to climb up hills when your hungry, I mean really hard. 
4. All desert flora and fauna are pissed off and want to hurt you with thorns or poison
5. Taking zero days (where you don't hike the PCT at all) are needed and almost as important as hiking.