Big Bear – Idyllwild Day 154

Day 154 Sat Nov 25th
Tent site 3 – San Jacinto – Humber Park Trailhead – Idyllwild – Mt San Jacinto State park
2467.4 – 2475.8 (trail mileage not incl blue blaze to summit)
Approx. 2556 ft ascent 4652 ft descent
12.4 Miles (mileage calculated from additional blue blaze to summit)

It looked like we pulled in, just in the nick of time last night.
On waking up and peeling back the vestibule doors on the tent, we could see that between 0.5 -1 inch of snow had fallen in the area outside of the protection of the bows of the pine tree where we had pitched the tent.
It was bitterly cold so we packed up all our gear inside the confines of our tent before venturing out.
I managed to boil some water to make some oatmeal and a hot drink, but 1 of the bottles was frozen with ice floating in it.

Having a warm breakfast really helps raise moral and warms us up from the inside before we hit the trail.

We had high expectations that San Jacinto would be a great mountain to climb and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With this fresh carpet of snow it had exceeded all my dreams.
This place was simply stunning and being the first people to break fresh footprints in the snow was a great feeling.
The only competition were the nocturnal wildlife where we could see their paw prints clearly in the snow.
We had great fun following the prints and 1 set was possibly made from a Bob cat.

The sun was breaking through the pine trees, casting its rays across the trail in front of us. This puts a huge beaming smile across our faces.

We cross several springs and creeks that run across the trail.
The rocks were covered in thick ice and we had to tread carefully when walking across them.
The creek was flowing but had made beautiful icicle formations across the rocks. This made it hard to collect water.
We kept our water filter buried deep inside our packs as a precaution to stop them freezing.
The water bottle carried on the side of my pack soon started to freeze, not long after we collected it from the creek. As I hike it sounded like jingling ice cubes in a glass.

We arrived at the side trail leading up to the summit of Jacinto and decided to go for it.
There’s only 3.5 miles up to the summit hut shelter and this alternate was only marginally longer than the PCT.
It’s also leads back to Saddle Junction which takes us to a Humber Park Trailhead, where hopefully we can get a hitch to Idyllwild.

Some of the other routes look shorter but drop nearly 4,000 feet in elevation.
To retrace our footsteps back to these will be a lot more difficult than following the route to the summit and then to Saddle Junction.

The 3.5 mile hike up to San Jacinto was pretty busy with day hikers. When we got to the top there must have been 15-20 people crowding the summit taking pictures.

It was not the ideal wilderness experience that we were hoping for but the views were still pretty sweet.

One day hiker was even listening to a boombox all the way up the mountain with his tunes blasting out.
I thought about asking him to use a pair of headphones, but just managed to keep far enough ahead for it to really bother me.

Some of the other day hikers seemed very interested in our adventure and asked us lots of questions amd wanted photos.

One guy pointed out Mexico just in the distance which looked tantalising close.

On the way back down the mountain we hiked towards Saddle Junction. Both glad we had decided to take the alternate blue blaze to the summit.
After all we had covered 9/10 of the climb and it seemed crazy not completing this last part.

Sarah seems to be really struggling and in a lot of pain again. Particularly on the downhill, which is a jumble of rocks. Although the descent was not as bad as we expected at least and there are significantly less people which is great.

The mountains stretching off towards the horizon are covered in pine forest with a fresh dusting of snow.

We reach Saddle Junction around 16:00
and it’s another 2.5 miles to Humber Park trailhead. From here hopefully we can get a ride to Idyllwild.

On the way down to Humber Park trailhead
the snow seemed to dissappear under 7,000 feet, but it was still bitterly cold.

It’s not long before the sun sets in the far distance and head torches are essential.

Ideally you want to arrive at trailhead in daylight hours as is much easier and safer to get a hitch.
I was just getting concerned that this wasn’t going to happen, when we meet another day hiker called Raphael hiking down the mountain.
He told us he was in his last semester studying Civil Engineering. And that he planned to hike the PCT once his studies were done.
On the way into the small mountain town of Idyllwild, we found that the streets were lined with people as the Christmas lights were being turned on.
It was a great night to arrive in Idyllwild and there was a real sense of festivity.
Something that we had almost forgotten whilst on trail.
A lot of effort had been put in dressing the trees in the square with pretty lights and it really put us in the festive mood.

However, this does come at a price and we found that most of the motels were charging around $180 / night (£150),
We headed towards the Idyllwild Inn and the awesome Lisa said if we came back tomorrow night the prices would be much lower around $110 + we could check in early and get out of the cold.
She couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful + also had a selection of handmade pies on the front desk that she had made.

We had met Cam and Hoppy earlier and they informed us they were staying at the
Mt. San Jacinto campground just outside the town.
Although being so close to town we really didn’t want another night out in the cold, at $5 / night this was a steal and the best option for the night.

Before checking into the campground Sarah and I went for food at the Lumber Mill, which was a popular burger joint.
There was a Karaoke night and the place was jumping.
We were initially seated right next to the action, but soon relocated once the singing started not wanting to get pulled up on stage.

We met a lovely couple called Paola and Fidel. They were staying in Idyllwild with their family on vacation from LA.
Their daughter was keen on doing the PCT some day + they were all interested to hear about our adventure.
They kindly offered to let us stay at their cabin the following night, which was another example of the unbelievable kindness we’ve experienced on the trail.

Bellies full and ear drums ringing from the kareoke we walked back out into the cold and up to the campground.

Although this sounds pretty miserable, but when you have the right gear, clothing and warm sleeping bag it’s perfectly doable.

I’ve perfected the art of keeping my ski gloves on, whilst sorting through gear and setting up shop. Even when doing those fiddly jobs!
This really helps stop your fingers from getting too cold and suffering.

We pitched the tent in amongst Manzanita bushes at the “Hike and Bike” section of the campground and retired exhausted for the night.

We set up swiftly and it wasn’t long before we were snuggled up in our sleeping bags, with ice forming on the tent.