Hike Log

Hiking The Beast In The Dark! Yikes!!

Trailhead:

Humber Park/Devil’s Slide

Type of Hike:

Day hike

Trail Conditions:

Trail in good condition

ROAD:

Road rough but passable

Bugs:

Bugs were not too bad

Snow:

Intermittent snow – not hard to cross

Ok….We have had a lot of firsts this year and this hike was no exception!  I love this hike because we get to stay in Idyllwild and go see my favorite server Richard at our favorite brewery Idyllwild Brewing Company the day before we summit!  That's always the best start to a hike….a little liquid carbo loading!  This was our first hike in the dark.  We had our head lamps on and knew we needed to get started pretty early to get this hike in.  We started out at 4:40 am and I think finished our hike at around 7:30 pm.  Hey….we're older!  We take our time!  We enjoy the journey!  Sorry, that seemed a little defensive, it's just that we are always being passed by tons of hikers, so I'm feelin a little inadequate.  On to the hike, so Christina and I have a great rhythm to our hiking and we've come to discover that it's better when I hike in front (I think I covered that on the Mt. Wilson log)…so when we started out on our hike and she jumped in front of me for the first hour or so before daylight I thought it was a little strange but didn't say anything.  In the dark we saw two beady eyes staring back at us at one point and as we passed saw that it was a baby owl.  Love love love seeing wildlife and absolutely know that I'm in their world.  The hike was beautiful and we had perfect weather.  As we got higher on the mountain we came across intermittent snow patches (and stick a pin in that)!  Christina and I are getting better at stopping and eating so we have enough gas left to scramble to the top, in fact I've started carrying electrolytes in my bladder so I have at least 3 liters to consume.  This scramble however was much trickier than last time as there was snow all around the boulders so getting to the top was more treacherous to navigate.  We made it up and it was crowded!  We didn't stay long but watched as some hikers descended on the opposite side of the peak so we followed and found an easier way to get off the top.  Next time we will go up that way as well.  Ok, so here's the pin note…..I am an Aries and I am a total kid and when it comes to snow I just want to play.  So every time I walked by a snow patch I did a golf swing with my hiking poles and made it snow all over my friend….I must have done this 25 times during the day.  UNTIL….I did it one more time and caused her to slip on a rock on our way down and she fell and ate crap on her arm….of course I felt horrible and knew I was going to be in big trouble with her spouse when we got back to the car.  However, she was more concerned about the very handsome shirtless men we had just passed on the trail and when she fell they came back to check on her…”Ma'am are you ok”?  Then I really felt horrible!! and really knew I was in trouble!!  Well payback is a B…rhymes with itch.  When we were about 2 miles from finishing our hike, of course I had to pull off the trail to drop trow and when I was finished and stood up I turned to see that I had pee'd literally right next to what I believe was a rattlesnake only it never moved.  Later, upon looking at the photos I took of it, it may have been curled up processing a recently consumed meal.  That taught be a lot about really looking down around your feet before you lower your behind close the ground!!  WOW!!  Great hike, great stories and I think I have one less of my nine lives! Oh yes, the reason Christina got in front of me in the dark was because she figured if some wild animal was going to get us, it would be the one of us that was behind the other…..NICE!!

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