Idyllwild to Julian

Daphne Jumilla

26 Nov 2025 — 3 min read

This was our second to last section of the PCT!

We were having such a good time in Idyllwild that it was really hard to leave, but we were getting anxious to finish the trail - we were physically tired but also excited and sad to see the end of this adventure coming so close.

We hiked about 13 miles out of Idyllwild in the afternoon, then we "got got" by daylight savings. We had one less hour of day hiking than we'd expected, plus that also explained why we got up at 5am that day... oops! The trail views out of Idyllwild were surreal and we enjoyed every minute of it.

This section of the trail was quite dry and we had to efficiently plan our water carried. However, we also had some fun highlights on this stretch:

1- We saw Kasey and his sister Tasha, friends of Miles' dad who were hiking a section of the PCT NOBO. It was the first time we met someone from our "real life" circles on the trail, and it felt like a casual encounter! It was refreshing talking to them for a bit since they had such a positive energy.

2- Blue treated us to a burger at the Paradise Valley Café, which might be one of the most underrated restaurants on trail. This place, only a 1 mile hitch away, had the most gourmet burgers for affordable prices. We got a hitch with the owner of the restaurant, got some items from the plentiful hiker box and enjoyed good conversation.

3- We had a very flat section of trail crossing through a meadow just north of Warner Springs. We also stopped at the Warner Springs Community Center, which is right on the trail and is super equipped to help the hikers. They have showers, buckets to do laundry, tables to hang out and power outlets to charge devices. We also got food from the gas station down the road and got a hitch there with a truck!

4- This section had SO MANY CACTI!! Some of them were really big. Miles picked his favorite:

5- We got to Julian as fast as possible because Mom's Pies gives FREE pie to thru-hikers!!!

Mom's pies - please go if you stop in Julian!!!

As you see in the pictures, the pies came with ice-cream and they also treated us to a hot beverage. We got their hot apple cider, it was amazing! We also got the "apple dumping" because it looked spectacular and we couldn't resist:

With full bellies and happy hearts we went back to the trail the same day to hike our last PCT section!!!

We made it!!!

On November 9th 2025 we reached the US-Mexican border, after having lived on the trail for 144 days. We popped open some Catalan cava (aka the best sparkling wine) and celebrated with Miles' family and with Daphne's family on the phone. There's a trail register

Last steps to the Mexican Border!

If you'd asked us before the trail "is 77 miles a long backpacking trip," we would have respond with a resounding yes. Prior to the PCT, our longest backpacking trip was in Olympic National Park, where we hiked 60 miles over 5 and a half days,

Big Bear to Idyllwild

This post and the following ones come with a delay, since... we already finished the trail on November 9th!! Writing on the blog became a second priority (or last priority more so) while we walked the last miles on the trail as we became increasingly tired and just focused on

Update from Idyllwild

After the snowy Mount Baden Powell, we made our way to Big Bear, and there were many fun stops and things that happened in this 100 mile stretch! Only 22 miles after Wrightwood, the PCT crosses highway 15 at Cajon Pass, house of the famous “PCT McDonalds”. We headed out

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We made it!!!

Last steps to the Mexican Border!

Big Bear to Idyllwild

Update from Idyllwild