4/17 – Day 10 – San Jacinto Mountains
Got up on a very cold morning.
As I was packing up camp, Ramblin Man came by, the 50 something hiker I saw camped on the ridge the night before a couple miles back. He headed down from there to get water from Apache Springs. That was too far down and back up for me, so I set off up the San Jacintos with unbelievable views of the Salton Sea and the Palm Springs area. There was some dangerous hiking, with rock slides and cliffs. There started to be more and more snow, so I knew I could melt some as my water supply was getting low. The cool temperatures made drinking less necessary. At about 3pm I finally reached Tahquitz creek that had a small flow of fresh snow melt, great cold water.
I had lunch there and moved on for couple miles until I reach the saddle where the side trail lead down steeply 2.5 miles to Idyllwild. I saw two guys taking pictures of the beautiful rock formation, and I asked them for a ride the 2.5 miles into town. They were very nice native Americans who worked for, I think it’s called The Bureau of Native Affairs. They were interested in my adventure and drove me to the doorstep of the cabin in Idyllwild where I stayed the next 2 nights.
Click the link to see where I stayed tonight: http://fms.ws/Bk-CN/33.74712N/116.71135W