CS160 to Idyllwild – 5-18

We packed up camp and headed out along the ridge, and were treated to more long views of the desert. Soon, we reached the border of the Mountain Fire Closure, the first of several closed sections of the PCT.

So, we began an Alternate route around that part of the trail, called Halfmile’s Alternate. It took us down step dirt roads, then to a paved road that passed through a large property signed “Girl Scout Training Camp”. It had large, threatening “No Trespassing” signs at least every 20 feet for a long ways.

As we descended further, we were treated to our first rattlesnake sighting. It was about 3 feet long, lying across the road. When it saw us, it rattled and fled into the bushes, buzzing as it slithered.

I’ll put a video here when WordPress supports it.

Halfmile’s alternate followed highway 243 once we got to the bottom of the mountain, on a dirt maintenance road under power lines.

I was struck by how scenic this maintenance road was.

The maintenance road meet up with highway 253 after a few miles, near Lake Hemmit Campground, an RV destination overlooking the lake. After a brief stop at the campground’s store, (at which I enjoyed a delicious Strawberry Fresca), we went a bit further to a park to eat our lunch.

Just as we were opening our packs, Garrett and Brianna appeared out of thin air. They, like us, wanted to walk all the way to Canada without driving around anything, so they had taken the same alternate.

We had lunch with them, and decided to finish this alternate together, so we set off onto a system of bike trails and dirt roads that would bring us back to the trail, and then into Idyllwild, our next resupply stop.

We learned that they had trail names already. Garrett had been named Pathfinder, because his ability to find a trail had impressed someone. Specifically, the guy I had nicknamed “Wrong Way”. Brianna was called “Wonky”, because she had once packed here backpack so badly it wobbled as she walked.

Pathfinder said that my trail name should be “Town Food”, because I had so far managed to eat in town at least once a day.

As we approached Idyllwild, curious little buildings started appearing in the trees.

We eventually descended into Idyllwild proper, checked into the hotel, and ran errands.

Pathfinder and Wonky had heard that a particular pizzeria was especially hiker-friendly, so we went there for dinner. They served huge portions, gave us a discount, and put our picture on the wall.

They also served good beer. We tried one we hadn’t had before – Firestone’s Luponic Distortion – and it was quite good.

We talked about the next fire closure, the Lake Fire. This one had no official route around it, but I had found one online. It looked difficult, with complicated forestry roads, abandoned highways, and some bushwhacking. We decided to stick together for that. I thought we needed a team name.

We called it a night, and went to bed anticipating a big climb up Mt. San Jacinto tomorrow.