Room To Grow

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Mt San Jacinto Camping Trip

We are back from our camping trip to Mt San Jacinto. We had a great time and plan to go back - hopefully soon. To get to there, we drove through Hemet (Sandy's alma mater... and thankfully serviced by THREE Starbucks on the main road), which is followed by a leisurely 30 minute mountain drive to the village of Idyllwild. Idyllwild is cute - filled with shops and a nice selection of restaurants & coffeeshops. We were staying at the Mt San Jacinto State Park which is just steps from downtown, also pretty cool. We set up camp and wandered into town. Got the mandatory ant spray and headed back to our site for dinner and a campfire.

The next day we took a hike into the Wilderness on the Deer Springs Trail to Suicide Rock. It was gorgeous - pictures above. I was a bit worried about the black bears, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. We didn't see anyone on the trail for over an hour, but after that we saw people every 10-15 minutes which decreased my anxiety about being ravished by the mountain lions. The whole hike was about 7 miles - there and back - and a huge accomplishment since the whole way to Suicide Rock is an incline - about 1700 feet. It took us about 4.5 hours, with a 45-minute rest stop at Suicide Rock. Following the hike we went to the Bread Basket for lunch - yum, great sandwiches & onion rings (ok, just ruined my healthy morning).

Our next adventure was to go to Black Mountain and check out the fire ranger station, conveniently located 5.8 miles from the highway. What they didn't mention in the local rag is that the 5.8 miles is on a gravel road, mostly single-laned with no guard rails. Oh and with many many pits and trenches. So after our first trench (which Michael had to push the Highlander out of while I spun the tires at like 50 mph) we should have gone back. But we were half way there, so we had to keep going, right? The road got steeper and even more scary. We couldn't turn around even if we wanted to. At about 5.5 miles, we hit a stretch we just couldn't manuever... after 10-15 minutes of pushing and burning probably 10,000 miles off of our tires we admitted defeat and backed down the hill until we could turn around. The good news is that we make it back to the campground in one piece; the bad news is that our SUV didn't live up to our expectations. :(

Michael spent the weekend reading Melina's "Raising Adopted Children" (the last book I read) and I started "Two Little Girls". So far I like it - I'll provide a full report when I'm done.

Written at 3:45 PM by A Room to Grow.

5 comments

5 Comments:

Maggie said...

Sounds like a great 4th of July weekend. I'm glad you were mountain lion free!

4:26 PM PDT

TraciB said...

How's the book coming along? I really loved it and it has come to mind many times as I travel along in my own adoption. I have seen many people react with disdain for the mothers reactions and thoughts but I just think she is really honest and is trying to be honest about life- sans any rose colored glasses. I too have thought many of those same thoughts only to find later that they were completely unfounded and superficial. We are only human.... I am excited to hear what you think.

9:10 PM PDT

sandy said...

Yes, I remember the Bread Basket! Sounds like you guys had a good time. Ant spray? Yikes! I haven't had to worry about ants before.... hope they weren't too much of a nuisance. Happy 4th!

11:17 PM PDT

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photos! I love to camp, so I am very jealous. Sounds like you had a great time!

10:31 AM PDT

Rhonda said...

It sounds like a great trip. Love the photos :)

7:54 PM PDT