May 17th - Jeep Road to Paradise Cafe

Got another early AM start. Met up quickly with Luke and Jana who camped a mile or 2 down the trail from us. The rest of the day all of us were playing leap frog. It got hot fast - 105 degrees by 10:30am with no breeze. We were all hurting. What was supposed to be an easy 15 mile stroll into Paradise Cafe ended up being a never-ending death march with mean inclines/declines at the end of the trail. The Matt's had a hard time with the heat, so we passed them soon after the Hiker's Oasis water cache. We later found out that they jumped off the trail and headed to Anza to hitch to Idyllwild. Tom and I hobbled in to the Paradise Cafe and met Luke and Jana for a late lunch/early dinner. Luke and Jana ended up hitching into Idyllwild, but Tom and I were done for the day. We crashed behind the restaurant under a huge pine tree. The ground was super-cushy - so we slept well.