I arrived at Boulder Oaks Campground on March 27 to find about thirty backpackers grouped into three sites. I assumed they were thru hikers like me and asked if I could share their camp. They said sure and told me they were going to have a big campfire later. I was unsure about that as I figured it meant they would be up late partying. So I chose a site a couple sites away and invited another thru hiker to join me. Later I found out the group was not thru hikers but section hikers from a meet up group in San Diego. They were hiking from Mt. Laguna to Lake Morena, just an overnight. They had just gotten the fire started when I walked by heading to the outhouse. As I came out , a trail angel pulled up with several coolers of beer so I decided to join in the fun. There were just a few people standing around and someone shouted Free beer. Next thing you know it was like the walking dead coming out of the other campsites. We all had a good time and shared some stories. There were four of us thru hikers there by then. It was fun and I said good night about 8;00 and went to bed.

So Janet, Jerry, Danny,  Ashley and I were sitting around at the Idyllwild Inn trying to decide the best course of action to take on Sunday morning. We heard there’s a lot of snow up on Fuller Ridge and so we considered bypassing it by getting a ride around to the 10 from this guy called Grumpy. Ashley, though, who is young and fit, said the snow didn’t look like any big deal, just a little slushy stuff that you could walk right through and she recommended that we go for it. And alternative was to get a ride out to Black Mountain road and then 
heard up on Fuller Ridge and so we considered bypassing it by getting a ride around to the 10 from this guy it. And alternative was to get a ride out to Black Mountain road and then hike 8 miles up the road to the PCT. the end we took Ashley‘s advice and decided to go for it. Big mistake. There was so much snow on the trail the entire way and it got worse and worse the farther we went. Ashley had said we didn’t need spikes so we didn’t take any spikes. Also, I didn’t have snow baskets on my polls and Janet and Jerry only had small baskets on their’s. Instead of reaching the campground at the end of the day we ended up having to camp on the mountaintop because it was getting dark and we were still miles from the camphike 8 miles up the road to the PCT. In the end we took Ashley‘s advice and decided to go for it. Big mistake. There was so much snow on the trail the entire way and it got worse and worse the farther we went. Ashley had said we didn’t need spikes so we didn’t take any spikes. Also, I didn’t have snow baskets on my polls and Janet and Jerry only had small baskets on their’s. Instead of reaching the campground at the end of the day we ended up having to camp on the mountaintop because it was getting dark and we were still miles from the camp

April 14-15:

We started today at mile 232, where we camped last night along Mission Creek. Upstream from here we knew was going to be very difficult. A massive flood the year before had washed out the trail for many miles. There were cairns we had to follow, but that was easier said than done. I knew the trail from 2018 crossed the creek a lot but there was an actual trail that was easy to follow. Now most of the way there was no discernible trail: only river rocks, which were difficult to walk on and therefore made for slow going and tired feet. Sometimes I had to remove my pack and climb up on my knees up a vertical embankment. Other times we lost the trail all together and wandered around looking for a cairn. The trail ended up being considerably longer this way as it was extremely serpentine crossing the creek dozens and dozens of times.

When we finally got to the last crossing of Mission Creek, which would also be the last water source for 18 miles, we entered a recent burn area. I believe the fire was from last year. There were many, many downed trees over the trail. We could climb over some, others we had crawl under or go around. A major storm that followed this fire was the cause of the washouts downstream. When we finally got to the last of the burn area, Janet and I were ready to camp as we were exhausted but Jerry wanted to go another five or 6 miles to the Coon Creek cabin campground. So we did that. It was pretty cold when we got there. We ended up sleeping inside a couple of the cabins, which had no doors or windows and only partial roofs but at least there was a little blockage of the wind.