Up to San Jacinto Peak
We got home from work on Friday evening and immediately packed up the car and left for our campsite in Idyllwild. It didn't take too long to get there and we arrived just as the sun was setting and turning everything a lovely shade of orange. We set up the tent and started dinner. It's now wildfire season, so we're done with campfires for the year, but we're still allowed our little propane stove to cook on.
In the morning, we were up early for our mountain trek. At 7:30, we drove to the campsite down the road to pick up a wilderness permit, and then back to our campground as the trailhead was further up by us. We started just before 8am at about 7000ft, and it was nice and cool and shady as the sun hadn't reached through the trees yet.
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| Mitchell filling in the Wilderness permit |
It was a tough hike, it immediately started as a steep incline, and didn't give much relief. In five miles, we climbed 4000 feet, which is a lot of height to gain! I'd seen online that people can suffer from altitude sickness nearer the top, but we kept an eye on ourselves, and didn't notice anything too bad. (For comparison, Mount Snowdon in Wales is only 3,560ft, whereas San Jacinto is 10,834ft).
We hiked through a few different areas, it started out in the trees, just like the rest of Idyllwild, then it flattened out briefly and we walked through a very pretty meadow, with flowers blooming either side of the trail. We were then back into the trees for a bit, and just over halfway up, we came across a little stream with a small flow of water.
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| A very pretty mountain meadow |
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| And a babbling brook |
We took several breaks for snacks and to put on suncream, and made it to the top at about 1:30pm, five and a half hours after we'd started. That's less than one mile an hour! Just before the top, our trail joined with another trail, with people who had hiked starting from the aerial tram. They had a slightly shorter route, but we had a look on the elevation on the map, and it didn't look like it was that much easier. It was pretty busy though, and even though we'd only come across a few groups on our trail, there was a constant stream of people coming from this other direction.
To get right to the top, we had to scramble over some boulders, and then onto the very highest one. For one brief moment, I was the tallest thing in the county and the second tallest in Southern California (other than some aeroplanes).
We had our lunch at the top (a plan which many other people seemed to have had, as there were a lot of pictures and picnics taking place by the time we left) and then Mitchell had a little nap while I took some pictures from all sides of the peak with my camera. It was so amazing to be able to see the horizon in every direction. On one side there was more mountains and trees, and on the other there was desert as far as you could see. Apparently on a clear day, you can see the sea and even Catalina Island from the top, but I think it was a bit too hazy to see that far. We did see a little plume of smoke from somewhere, but we hoped it was just a factory and not a wildfire!
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| The view to the West |
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| The view to the East |
We then started the long trek back down the mountain, which after a while was almost as hard as going up because we got so tired! It felt very long, but there were lots of signposts along the way which let us know what part of the trail we were on and how much further we had to go.
We made it back to our campsite at about 6pm, which was a lot faster than going up! It was good that we started so early in the morning, and I'm sure later in the year lots of people have to finish in the dark because they can't make it back in time.
We were so tired out, we made dinner and then went to bed as soon as it got dark. We then slept for about 11 hours.
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| All tuckered out |
In the morning, we had thought about doing another big hike in the area, but we were still pretty pooped, so we took a little walk around the campground instead, to see if there were any small trails to be found. We did find that one of the unoccupied campsites had a big pile of rocks in it, which we climbed up and sat on for a bit. It was pretty nice to be sat in the middle of the trees, above all the other sites.
We also found a little trail which didn't lead anywhere, but had a nice view along the way and a big rock at the end. So we went back for our books and read in the sun on this nice rock for a bit until we got hungry.
We went back, cooked our lunch and then packed up our stuff. Because it was a holiday weekend, I'd had to book for all three nights, but we decided it would be nice to have a full day at home on Monday instead.
We got home in the afternoon, sweaty (there were no showers at this site either), tired, but very happy with what we'd achieved the day before.
Happy 4th July!
Emily and Mitchell
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