day 19- 8 miles

Dropped off in the town of Idylwild not wanting to hang around I began walking up circle rd. to humber park. At humber I would fallow the devils slide trail to saddle junction to meet the pct. After 20 min of walking up this road a local gentleman stopped and kindly drove me to the trailhead. There I ran into search and rescue, seems a day hiker had got him self lost near saddle jct. After getting a discription and the last area known I headed off up the devils slide trail into the san jacinto's. Starting the day near 2000 ft in Claremont to over 8000+ got me a bit definitly take a day to acclimatize as it was slow going today. Met a day hiker who uses the tram system to start at one end of the trail finish at another and still catch the tram that night back to palmdale. The search and rescue chopper was out all day, kind of a wierd feeling when there checking you out to see if your the lost hiker, you don't want to wave cause they might think you need help so you kind of just hike on hoping they get the picture. Hope they find him soon. Although the hiking was tough due to the high altitude it was an amazing area with quite large pine and cedar trees, craggy mts., snow, and cool clear runoff around every corner which made the trail somewhat strenuouse but delightful. This evening I came across Richard and Mal, as they were filtering some water from a small stream, neat folks, I would hike with them through fuller ridge though it would take a day longer than planned. Camped at strawberry jct. trail camp on a saddle a few miles prior of fuller ridge, good views and a sunset to boot even get radio. baseball game perhaps?