51 miles - Tram to Idylwild

[DUG]

On July 22nd myself and another troop leader took three of Wildomar's Troop 332 scouts on an epic 5 day hike from the upper tram station to Idylwild. The goal was to have fun and earn the BSA 50 Miler patch.

After breakfast at Denny's we were dropped off at the tram. It was my first ride up and very enjoyable. We were off to a great start when we discovered that military/retired were free and the rest of the party was 25% off. Cost for five people was less than 60 dollars. This would benefit us on day two.

We had a small problem at the ranger station. My co leader had arranged for permits. We had a valid permit for the state side, but not for the wilderness side. He assumed we could one before we hit the trail, but that wasn't exactly the case. Luckily the ranger was cool and after explaining our mistake got the Idylwild ranger station on the phone. After trading a couple faxes over 45 minutes we were good to go. The ranger said it's happened before and not every ranger will bend over to help out. We counted our blessings and headed out.

The plan was for two nights in Round Valley and two nights near Saddle Junction. We made quick work of the hike to Round Valley even with 5 days worth of supplies on our backs. We set up camp, found the water source and then had lunch. To get our miles in we hiked back down to the tram station and checked out all the day use trails in the area. We then headed back to camp for dinner.

Day two was an early breakfast and a hike to the peak. It was breezy so we didn't stay long. Clouds hid the views. We headed back to camp for lunch. Still needing miles we decided to invest the money saved on the tram ride into ice cream. We headed back to the tram station and got some very expensive ice cream bars. Then it was back to camp for dinner.

Day three we packed up and headed towards Saddle Junction. Our packs were lighter, but the hike was longer. We found a good spot in Skunk Cabbage and made ourselves at home. After finding the water source we explored the area and napped. After dinner we headed to Tahquitz Peak fire lookout the long way. We had it to ourselves for sunset. We took a shorter way back in the darkness. None of these boys had ever hiked by headlamp before.

Day four we slept in and then headed to Carumba after breakfast. The pools and waterfall were just what we needed after days of dusty trails. We packed our lunches and brought them with us so we could stay longer. Returning to camp we only had one thing left to do - EAT. We had scheduled a 0800 pick up in Humbler so we tried to eat through most of our remaining food, saving a little for breakfast. We ended up getting to bed late, even though the alarm was set for 0500.

Day five came early and to my surprise the boys were packed and organized a lot earlier than I thought they would be. We were hiking before 0600. I thought we would be sitting in the Humbler Park parking lot by the world's worst park bathroom for awhile, but just as we got into Saddle Junction proper my phone got a signal. I called our ride and she headed out early.

Checking the GPS upon arrival at Humbler showed we had covered just over 51 miles. We had no problems of any kind the entire trip, other than the permit snafu. The boys earned a very rare scout patch that they can be proud of. We covered a lot of different trails up there, trying to never repeat the same one unless we had to.

Looking forward to another trip up there next year.

[Wild]

Hey there,

Great trip report! Sounds like a fun outting and I'm glad the rangers worked something out for you!

Take care,

Danny

[Hikin_Jim]

Sounds like fun. Got pix?

HJ

[DUG]

Here's a link to most of the pics. My camera died midway on day four so the rest are on my iPhone and haven't been uploaded.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30467211@N ... 708025272/

I forgot to mention that as a service project we picked up as much trash as we could. The first two days we were able to haul it back to the tram station, but the remaining trash we found during our travels was collected in camp and hauled out to Humbler. Easily 5 pounds or more over the whole trip.

[Hikin_Jim]

Nice pix and good job on the service project.

What stove is that I see in photo IMG_0386? Looks like an older Primus Omnifuel or Multifuel? Which is it?

HJ

[DUG]

Jim - Not sure what model the stove is. I know it's a multifuel. The other leader brought it and hates it. It might be in the trash by now. He was planning on replacing it with a JetBoil.

I'll ask him at the next meeting what it was.

[Hikin_Jim]

Jim - Not sure what model the stove is. I know it's a multifuel. The other leader brought it and hates it. It might be in the trash by now.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's a bit clunky, but it's a piece of history. If it's in good working order, I'll give him 20 bucks for it.

HJ