). Here’s the gang at Humber Park parking lot right before we stepped off…
One of the main attractions in Idyllwild is for rock climbers. It is called "Lilly Rock". This is the view of Lilly Rock from Humber Park. You can set in the parking lot of Humber Park with binoculars and watch people scaling the face of this awesome face of granite. We will see this again but we will be looking down on it.
Things like that really put perspective to how far or high you've gone.
Water flow along the trail. This was our first indication that we wouldn't have a problem finding water sources to filter from. Water is definitely a major concern during long hikes like this.
The rock you see here is called "Suicide Rock", another popular attraction near Idyllwild. That's Hemet in the distance.
We hiked for several hours to main popular junction called "Saddle Junction". Several trails branch off here to go different directions. We decided to eat some lunch here and get the packs off our backs for a little bit. Although we were already beat up pretty good and still had a ways to go for the day, we were all in good spirits.
We finally reached our campsite after about 4.5 hours of hiking. Elevation at camp was 9100 feet and the odometer for the first leg was 5.25 miles. I found this primo spot out on this finger with a great view to pitch my tent. We were expecting high winds that night and low temperatures so we got our tents secured really well and we took naps to recuperate energy.
We still had to hike about another two miles round trip to get water. We rested for a few hours then loaded up all our bladders and nalgene bottles and set off for a spring to filter some water for cooking and our trek to the peak the next day. Here’s a picture of the group filtering from a small waterfall and a detail picture of some wild lettuce (very poisonous to consume).
After we got back from our water trek it was time to relax and cook some supper. We had a rock star view but the wind was really starting to get nasty. Despite the wind we all slept really well. In the first picture here you see Tahquitz Peak and Lilly Rock. Quite an elevation change from Humber Park to camp.
We woke up around 5:00 am on Saturday morning, drank some coffee fixed some breakfast while enjoying this awesome view. The full moon was incredible.
We left camp set up and grabbed our daypacks with water, food, and first aide (just in case) and headed for the peak. On the way to the peak we got some good views of Palm desert, the tram station from Palm Springs and Little Round Valley. Little Round Valley is the patch of green grass you see in the middle of all the trees below.
About 300 hundred yards from the peak is this cabin that was built in 1933. There have been numerous incidents of peoples lost, stranded, etc. on this mountain. People that climb this peak leave survival items in this cabin and sign the logbook inside. There’s everything from sleeping bags, litters, first aide equipment, food, etc. in this cabin.
After checking out the cabin, it was time to complete our summit. The main trail was snow covered so we had to scramble to the peak. The peak is a huge pile of large boulders stacked probably 60 feet high, maybe higher… The elevation at the peak is just above 10,900 feet. Here’s a view across the I-10 to Gorgonio from San Jacinto. Coon Creek Cabin is on the other side of that peak.
All-in-all this was an outstanding trip. It was a great conditioner for our Langley trip coming up in August. We hung out up top for about 45 minutes then headed back to camp, packed up our gear and hiked back to our trucks in Humber Park. For the day, our odometer read over 12 miles. We hit Humber Park around 5:30 pm and I made it to Coon Creek Cabin by around 7:45 pm. The whole hike distance was close to 20 miles for the two day stretch. Here’s a picture of the group chillin’ on the summit.
Here's a link to Skytrax's Kodak Slideshow. He's quite a photographer...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/cre ... 4136008703
But, at least I can say I did it and the view from up there is frickin' awesome!