This stretch of the trail had amazing vistas which fed my soul, lots of variety in terrain, but as always in this early part of the season, the weather makes all the difference. We left Idyllwild from the Black Mountain Road with fellow hikers Horseshoes and Storyman. There was snow for the first 8 miles and then we began descending for 14 miles with large views of Mt. San Jacinto all the way down.
San Jacinto 
200 miles 
The descent brought us gratefully out of the snow and we camped overseeing the hum and throb of the flat desert brown valley below with its trains, planes wind farms, interstate and weekend hikers.
Crossed the White River and into the Mount San Gorgonio Valley.
Expansive ridge walk views
The trail along Mission Creek was hard to find as the spring water runoff effects the path of the river annually. It was necessary to cross and recross the stream to locate the trail which allowed for navigational skills to be used. Somewhere along there Jobie got a tick bite which bull’s eyed. We took the due course of action and removed it carefully, sought medical attention and he is now on some antibiotics for 2 weeks.
Back in the snow again!
The trail climbed to 8,000′ and we spent a chilly night in a loud and angry wind storm before we came into Big Bear Lake.
Zip and Jobie Go Hiking 