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Warner Springs to Idyllwild
Thursday, April 27: Tule Spring — 17.8 + .85 (138.3)
Watching the fires burning only a mile or two away was a bit eerie last night. Fortunately, they didn’t come our way, though we were prepared to run for it if necessary. Our trail this morning climbed gently through manzanita, chaparral and occasional pines. We met one hiker with two dogs who was camped on Bucksnort Mountain for a couple of days. He was a farmer from Anza whose son hiked the PCT in 1998. We had lunch with him in the shade of a pine tree atop a gap, looking out at the hills below. There are beautiful mountains in several directions, looking green or purple depending on how far away they are. It was hot and breezy. I got water at a ranch about 1/3 of a mile off trail. The present owners are friendly to hikers, but since the place is for sale, I wonder if the next owners will still allow hikers to get water from the water tank?
I miss the wildlife we saw on the CDT. We hear owls and coyotes, see squirrels, lizards and snakes, plus an occasional hawk or woodpecker, but that’s about it. The brush is so dense, everything else remains hidden. We have seen a few red velvet ants. I wonder why they are always alone? You don’t see a line of them, just one soft red fuzzy creature at a time. Occasionally there is a white velvet ant — also alone. Odd.
We were more than ready to stop early tonight. A long rocky descent made our feet and knees scream. The best part of the day was washing up out of the water bag. The campsite at Tule Spring is a bit of a disappointment. I had expected a nice site amidst cool cottonwoods and sycamores, but the creek is narrow and the area was badly burned. There is water though, from a big concrete tank used by the fire crews. It’ll do. Jim and I are both really dehydrated. We’re carrying enough water, but not drinking it. It shows in our pace and our attitude, especially at the end of the day.
Friday, April 28: Penrod Canyon — 19.1 + 2.25=21.3 (157.4 total)
It was a windy, cool day, winding through the hills above the Terwiliger Valley amid desert flowers and cactus. We saw our first rattlesnake. It was perched on a ledge beside the trail. We scared it off its ledge, but then couldn’t get it off the trail, so we had to detour around it. The snake was nervous, with its head up and rattles shaking, but not mad enough to coil or strike. Last night a couple of bats played with us for about 20 minutes, darting in and around and between the two of us. It was a strange game.
Clouds are moving in, but, according to a printed-out forecast left on the trail next to a water stash, no rain is expected for the next week. I enjoyed all the flowers: yellow poppies, bushes covered with a yellow sunflower-type flower, agave, prickly pear, lupine, manzanita, paintbrush, etc. We passed through some huge reddish boulders — interesting.
Later: Our water source this afternoon was a café a mile off the trail, on the Palms to Pines Highway. Since the next water is either 8 or 18 miles ahead, and the last water was 15 miles back, it was no hardship to make the detour, especially since the Paradise Café treated us extremely well, with huge burgers, as much coke as we could swallow, and pie fresh out of the oven. Walking out of there with a gallon of water in our packs was not nearly as much fun, especially since we climbed from the highway up into pines amid big rounded colorful boulders. The granite rocks of the San Jacinto Mountains are a foretaste of the Sierras. It is pretty though.
Saturday, April 29: Gap on San Jacinto Crest - 14 or 15 miles (@172.4)
We woke up to frost inside the tent, and had a cool couple of miles to start the day. The wind was really whipping! We climbed most of the morning, passing over and around several small rocky peaks. The trail followed the ridgeline for a couple of miles, which was a nice change. We rarely get up on the crest, usually we contour along the side of the ridges instead. We dropped down to a pass, then climbed all afternoon into the mountains above the town of Idyllwild. The San Jacintos are a rugged range, burned in places, with fir, oak and pine in others, and some really steep sections of trail. It feels like real hiking, not wheelchair trail. I like it!
We woke to the sound of a hummingbird, checking us out. We have seen several over the past few days, not just your usual ruby-throated varieties. I’ve also enjoyed the variations among the horned toads. Some are only an inch long; others are 4 or 5 inches. Some are sandy or red or red and black. The lizards are less colorful, but more frequent. We see them constantly.
We met another PCT thruhiker, Mark Bingham from England. We met another Marc yesterday on our way to the café. He told us he had managed to eat both breakfast and lunch there. Marc is a musician from New Hampshire who hiked the AT over three years, using the trail name HairBear. He doesn’t plan to do the whole PCT this year as he has to be home in August, but he hopes to finish California. Meeting so many other long distance hikers is odd, after seeing so few last year. In the past nine days, we’ve met 11. In six months on the CDT last year we only met a total of 9 long distance hikers on the trail, including section hikers. This isn’t exactly a wilderness experience. I miss having the trail to ourselves, but then, we didn’t expect it out here. So far we’ve only met hikers in passing, so there is no sense of community. Maybe in a few hundred miles it will develop, when we actually get to talk to people for more than just a few minutes. We’ll see. On the Appalachian Trail, the shelter system and frequent hostels in towns along the trail kept people together. On the CDT, we felt the sense of community, though we never saw anyone for more than a few hours, simply because there were so few of us. Out here it is different. We may meet people in town or briefly on the trail, but our paces are all so different, we never manage to hike with anyone for long.
Later: So saying, we ended up camped with both Mark and Marc a couple of miles past Apache Spring. While Jim went for water, I watched our gear, visiting with a dayhiker and then both Marks while they rested after fetching water at Apache Spring. That was a long steep descent to water! After climbing back up to the trail with two gallons of water, Jim had had it. We kept going another mile or so, but stopped at a little gap that is likely to be the last campsite for a long way. The trail is rocky and narrow, dynamited into a steep cliff face. We saw our first snow, on the shady side of Eagle Peak. Stopping early gave us a chance to dry out our gear after the dewy evening last night. Unfortunately, our campsite was at a junction with a side trail, much used by dayhikers. A group of kids came up and then turned around while we were cooking dinner.
Sunday, April 30: Idyllwild — 7.6 + 2.5 miles (180)
We made it into town fairly easily. The morning hike had some surprises though. There was a long climb back and forth across the ridge with beautiful views of the peaks all around, then a gentle descent, with a fair amount of snow on the trail. Patches only, but a few were pretty steep and icy. We lost the trail for a while, following the wrong set of footprints, but found it again ¼ mile later. I spotted a couple of day-hikers on a ridge high above us, and sure enough, they were climbing Taquiz Peak. The trail ran just below it. We took a side trail to town that was long and steep but packed with day hikers, runners, and weekend backpackers. We got a ride the last two miles into town, headed for the nearest pizza place, and called Bob at the Taquiz Motel. He came to pick us up after a short stop at the grocery. The motel rooms have full kitchens, so I bought some hamburger to cook later, as well as beer, coke, juice, and fruit. Idyllwild is pretty touristy and looks expensive, but should be a nice day and a half stop.
I feel utterly exhausted, though it wasn’t that long or hard a hike today. There is a beautiful rock cliff above town — very Yosemiteish. I dread the climb back up though. The motel owner, Bob, has offered to drive us back to the trailhead. He is extremely nice, offering hiker discounts, shampoo, laundry soap, use of his computer, etc.
This morning was the first day I felt my usual hiker high. There have been a lot of things I’ve enjoyed — particularly the flowers — but mostly my pleasure has been very low key. I get a little aggravated at the roundabout nature of the trail, the endless gentle switchbacks and sidehill winding in and out of dry gullies, but not enough to matter. Yet somehow I haven’t really caught fire yet. I try not to make constant comparisons to the CDT, but today was one of the first days I didn’t think, "The CDT is better." As hard as the past two days have been (and they were), they were real hiking, not a gentle stroll along a wheelchair path. I really enjoyed it.
Monday, May 1: Rest Day in Idyllwild
For once, our rest day really has been a rest day. After a leisurely breakfast, we visited the outdoor store, hardware store, post office and grocery, then came back to our room to check e-mail on the motel’s computer, ate lunch, took a bath and read the afternoon away. I keep wondering what we have forgotten; usually town visits are much more hurried and harried. I’ll cook dinner in a while. In the meantime, my book awaits.
There are lots of thruhikers in town, though the only ones we know are Guy and Kerstan, Garey and the two Marks. Garey is getting off the trail. He passed out twice, and decided that it was time to go home. He is happy with what he did, though he didn’t go as far as he hoped. He told me, “You don’t know how lucky you are.” He’s right. We’re here, in this wonderful trail world. There are so many other realities we could be dealing with. Instead, we have the health, the money, the time, and the desire to be thruhiking. It’s not all luck — we made the choices that brought us here—but luck is a factor. My sprained ankle could have been worse and forced us off the trail. If not for the healthy stock market the past two years, we wouldn’t have had the money to be out there again. We could have family or health issues that keep us from hiking. Yes, we know we’re lucky, though we forget it sometimes.
We said hello to Adam, another PCT hiker, at the restaurant this morning, and met two guys with dogs. Most of the hikers are camped at the State Park across from the motel. This has been a nice stop. The town is small enough to navigate easily. At the same time, the motel is far enough out that we go out only when necessary. We’re saving a bit of money by cooking in the kitchen of the motel room, spending only for breakfast, our favorite meal. I’ll be ready to go back out on the trail tomorrow, but it has been a nice stop.
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