May 2nd, 2016
Miles Hiked: 15
Total Miles: 152
Start Location: Tule Creek
End Location: Highway 74
End Location GPS: 33.56592, -116.57630
Good day hiking as we ascended continually all day. We reached highway 74 around 2 PM and caught a ride to Idyllwild. It’s a funky small little mountain town and we are staying at the Silverpine Lodge for the night.
Up ahead there is another trail closure due to a fire in a previous year. This one is not as straight forward to go around. The last exit point near a road is near highway 10 which is around mile 210, but the closure does not start until mile 236. Additionally, the closure ends at mile 152 but the nearest trail access isn’t until mile 266. Unfortunately our only good option is to get out on highway ten and go to Big Bear City and continue at mile 266. It’s crappy that we have to miss a 56 mile section of trail but there are no good identified alternates at this point. We are planning on renting a car in Banning near highway 10 and dropping it off in Big Bear. After this detour there are not any other large problem areas due to fires and it will be smooth sailing hopefully.
We will hike out of Idylwild tomorrow.
