Vicki spends about 15 to 20 hours per week as a parent volunteer at the girl's school. In the classroom, at board meetings, raising money for various events. So it was no big surprise that she was asked to be the parent representative for the school at the California Distinguished Schools awards ceremony. The Distinguished Schools awards are actually pretty big, about 1 in 10 schools is selected.
The awards this year were at Disneyland. Last Friday. So, when Vic decided to go, it wasn't too big a stretch to decide to include us too. So off we went, up and out by 5:00 AM. After the awards we used complimentary tickets to enjoy an afternoon and evening in "the happiest place on earth:"
Then off Saturday morning to Idyllwild and the Fobes trail trailhead. A very hot start from 4,200 feet to an eventual highest point (for the day) of 8,500 feet. At Fobes Saddle we re-gained the PCT.
Then north, up the south ridge of the San Jacinto massif. After the first 5 miles, most of our hiking was in pine and fir forest, except where fires had scarred parts of the area. Here's a typical view of that day's first third:
The views toward Palm Springs were expansive:
This ridge is very rocky and the trail does lots of up and down:
On the last bit of trail to Tahquitz Creek:
After Tahquitz Creek we had one more climb (400 feet of elevation gain) to near the side trail to Tahquitz Peak (the peak itself, not the much lower dome we climb on):
Then, at Saddle Junction we left the PCT for the day and hiked to Humber Park, and Vicki and dinner:
This was a 15.3 mile day (12 on the PCT), and a tough one at that. Sleeping at the Disneyland hotel and then hiking to altitude in heat, combined with a lot of up and down, plus some rougher trail to make the hike a long 10+ hours.
The next day, off for Humber Park and back to Saddle Junction (Vicki hiked the first mile and a half with us). Then up toward San Jacinto peak before turning left to Strawberry Junction. At the point where we turned left, we reached 9,100 feet elevation, much higher than Tahquitz or Suicide Rocks:
At Strawberry Junction we again left the PCT. We hiked down the trail then to the top of Suicide Rock. I happen to know of a climber's trail there on which we descended back to Humber Park. Vicki met us at the base of Suicide to hike back out with us:
Only 4.5 miles of this 10.3 mile hike were actually on the PCT, but we got a huge elevation gain done, making our next leg more reasonable. Plus we had to keep this day's hike shorter so we could get home at a reasonable hour (school for Tricia the next day and Katie and I had to leave that same morning at O-Butt-Thirty for her 8th grade end of year camping trip).
Twenty five - plus miles in two days. Now 184 continuous miles of hiking from the Mexican border.
