8/1/10 A bit out of shape, and a bit injured, I decided to just do a relaxing day hike on one of the trails I had snow trekked last winter. I guess it's a good thing when 20 miles and over 5,500' of vertical gain is an easy day. Sections of this route are hands down the best Southern CA trail I have been on so far.
1 Up just a little after 4:00am, out the door before 5:00am, get my permit in Idyllwild just around 7:15am, on the trail by 7:45am. I decided to take the Deer Springs trail to the summit for the sake of comparison to when I took the same trail in the snow last winter.
2 I have a thing for a cool tree pictures.
3 A look towards Suicide Rock. It's about a 2mi. round trip detour there. I had hoped to take it today, but decided not to. One of these days...
4 Some very interesting looking pine cones.
5 From the main junction on the Deer Springs trail, I took the popular Little Round Valley trail on the way up, and the less traveled, but more amazing Wellman trail on the way back.
6 Who says there is no good trail running in Southern CA?
7 This is actually a huge rock. I'm not sure how the holes formed there.
8 How could you not want to run/hike down that trail?
9 Too bad this picture doesn't have sound.
10 I was surprised how green it was up here on August 1st. Maybe because of the cool summer? Or is it always this green? Regardless, it was amazing.
11 More green.
12 Made it to the summit shack. Quite a bit easier than in the snow! I was worried the trail would be really crowded on such a beautiful day, but it wasn't too bad.
13 One good thing about summitting on a nice summer day is that there are plenty of people there to take a picture of you.
14 Always have to include a picture of the marker.
15 This guy is at 10,833.5'.
16 I believe that is Gorgonio in the distance?
17 The obligatory 360 degree summit video. Judging by the conversations going on, I would say at least half of the people here took the tram up to Mountain Station (over 8000') and hiked from there. Cheaters!!!
18 On the way down, I took the Wellman Trail route. Deer Springs was such an awesome trail, I was really afraid I would regret taking this other route. It sounded like it was less popular, so I figured it was less popular for a reason. Lesson learned: don't just stick to the popular trails!
19 Here I am approaching Wellman's Cienega. I'm not sure exactly what a Cienega is, but I assume it means amazing green place. I felt like I was walking into a scene from Jurrasic Park or something.
20 Deeper into the Cienega, the trail is almost overgrown with chest and head high ferns. This trail is definitely not heavily traveled. It is amazing to think that just a few miles away, the Deer Springs trail can get fairly crowded.
21 I really didn't think this kind of thing existed in Southern CA. A forest of huge green ferns. In August! I can only imagine how green this place must have been a month or two earlier.
22 I want one of these in my backyard.
23 Sierras eat your heart out.
24 I just sat here for a while. It's too bad I'm no good at meditating, because this would be the place to do it. I would rank this as my #1 stretch of trail in Southern CA so far, bar none. To make it even more amazing, I did not see one human being on this entire 3.5 mile stretch of trail on a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon. Everyone takes the Deer Springs-Round Valley route. And I hope it stays that way!
25 One of the rare vistas in the area where there is no sign of humanity as far as the eye can see.
26 A good view of Hemet Lake in the distance. I'm almost back to the junction with the main Deer Springs trail at this point.
27 There were lots of snow plants in this area. Past their prime, but alive nonetheless. That means there were snow patches here not long ago. And it's August 1st!
28 So, I'm walking down the trail in my end-of-day tortured zoned-out zombie state and a couple people coming up the trail ask "Did you see a big rattlesnake up there? Someone said to look out for it". I said "Nope, didn't see one". They continued up the trail, and not more than 30 feet up the trail, right where I had just walked, was a big rattler just off the side of the trail. It was mellow until they started talking and then it coiled up and got pissed. I was surprised how beefy it was.
29 The other picture had a bit of zoom, this one is from the middle of the trail. The perfect way to see a great rattler specimen. Just glad it wasn't on the trail. I'm not sure whether it's good or bad that I didn't wake it up when I walked by.
30 Video version with sound for the full effect. Some guy threw a pine cone at it, I guess trying to get it to move further away from the trail.
31 Just a little while later... another snake! I almost stepped on this one before I saw it. Not a rattler (I hope), but I was still a bit jumpy from the last one. Aside from that, I made it back to the car just a bit before 5:30pm. Definitely not quite as dark as the last time I came down!