Strawberry Junction Gear Shakedown

Feb 27-28
Gear Check!

I recently got into a couple facebook groups for hikers/backpackers because I wanted to gain more experience and love reading from other people! My parents were in town but planning on going to Arizona so I had a last minute free weekend come up. Someone posted about doing a Saturday/Sunday trip and I jumped in on it. We started a little late because I had to get gear ready and take my parents to get a rental car. I met her at her house and we went to Idyllwild/ San Jacinto area. We stopped by the Ranger Station and picked up a permit for $5 each.

She said that we may be the only ones staying at Strawberry Junction. We didn’t start hiking until later afternoon. We made it up to Strawberry Junction a couple hours before sunset. We got set up. Enjoyed the sunset from the top of a boulder and made dinner. It was still pretty cold so we ended up going to our tents pretty quickly after dark. I read a little on my phone and ended up falling asleep pretty quickly. I hadn’t been feeling well so it was nice to go to sleep! I woke up in the middle of the night to what seemed like something smelling my tent. I am not really sure what it was but the ranger did report a mountain lion was spotted around the area recently. In the morning we debated heading up to the peak or not but we both were not feeling great. We made breakfast, packed up, and headed back down. It was a perfect quick trip to make sure I was happy with all my gear in the colder weather and everything worked out great! It was great to meet someone else who loves the outdoors and backpacking and hopefully we will be able to do another trip!