Mile 165ish - Big Bear Lake from Hiway 18

So wow, snow already. After leaving Warner Springs, I hiked a few 20ish mile days through desert to palms-to-pines hiway. Everyone on trail had been talking about the San Jocinto Mountains being possibly snow-ridden from palms-to-pines hiway to Fuller Ridge Campground. I decided to try it anyway, and met up with Hasty, who was going to try to go through as well. We didn't hit snow until about 2 or 3 miles before Devil's Slide trail, which we were planning on taking into Idylwild. We couldn't find the trail for a while, but thankfully Hasty had a compass and we used our compass and map- reading skills to find our way across the valley to the saddle that the devil's slide trail is in.
The next day, after filling our bellies and food bags in Idylwild, Hasty and I went back up into the mountains to attempt Fuller Ridge. After walking for about 12 hours, most of which was not on-trail but sinking/traipsing/bushwhacking through snow, rocks, and bushes, we made it 14ish trail miles to Fuller Ridge campground. It was the first time on the trail thusfar that I'd truly been relieved to be in camp for the night. I was told after the Fuller Ridge section that going through that area has better prepared me for the Sierras though!
The next day, going from an elevation of about 8,500 ft down to I-10 in the Mojave Desert at around 2,000 ft was an adventure- switchbacking 15 miles down the mountain to the next water source (a water fountain) by about 2pm. We planned on going 23 miles to a windfarm, but got distracted by Jackalope and Eagle Eye's trail magic under I-10 - those grilled cheese sandwiches and watermelon really hit the spot!
We then proceeded to head back up the mountains(the San Gorgonios this time) to about 8,000ft. Thankfully, this part of the trail wasn't covered in snow in most parts, and had some beautiful views. I'm unable to post pictures here at Big Bear Lakes Hostel, so I'll have to post more next time I'm in town. There are a few fire closures coming up, so I'm sure the trail will look a lot differently than it has for the past week- I'm definitely looking forward to it though!