Today was a weird and long day. I wanted to summit San Jacinto at sunrise but it would've just been dicey/freezing. Headed up to the peak around 530a and got to the summit right around when the snow started getting slushy. The peak is at 10,834 ft, so high! The only other time I've ever been at 10k is on Camp Muir. It was a little scramble but we all made it safely in our tennies. There is a little emergency hut up there too. Then we started descending down the other side of the peak so we could get back on the PCT. I mainly hiked alone today because I was taking my time. My sciatica hurts really bad going downhill and today we descended over 4k.

After we ended up on the other side of Fuller Ridge, everything became desert again! It got hot fast and all of the dryness came back. This means we're about to head into the real desert now (I think). All of a sudden, there were a million lizards crossing the trail and they got bigger. There were also huge beetles and flies everywhere. I did notice that a lot of the desert flowers smelled SO good as I was passing them.

Coming back into the desert from San Jacinto.

It was getting late and the campsite I wanted was taken already. I ended up going way further than I wanted to because there were NO flat spots to be found, and my back was hurting really bad. I just wanted to be done and pass out. I was also starving since I didn't eat dinner yet. I was planning on getting up early to head down to Ziggy's but now I don't know since I ended so late. Tomorrow should be interesting. We're going to Ziggy and the Bear's (trail angels) at I10 and then I have to figure out a way to get a bus from Cabazon to Big Bear because there is another fire closure.