At 7:00AM we met at the Hurkey Creek Campground. It was 20°F that morning in the
campground and people were anxious to get started. We drove to the roadhead for
the first four peaks on the Morris Ranch Road. We hiked on an access trail to
the Pacific Crest Trail. All six of these peaks are just off the PCT and once we
got to it, we headed south and turned off the trail to get Pyramid Peak. It was
very windy on top of the rocky summit so we didn't spend too much time up there.
Next we did Lion Peak where we had our lunch. At this point we turned around and
leaded north. Next we got Pine Mountain #2, which has a short recently brushed
out route to the rocky summit.
Returning to the PCT, we continued north and got Palm View Peak - this peak has
no view and there are no palm trees.
We then retraced our steps south on the PCT to a shorter, but not very well
maintained trail which connected us back to the roadhead. This saved us
unnecessary steps on a mile of the PCT. This day was 2500 feet of gain in 14
miles.
Back in camp I was worried that the leaves of our garbage bag community salad
would freeze in the 15°F weather. It seemed colder than the morning. The dinner
never got underway because we all decided to go to a motel in Idyllwild, about
20 minutes away. We got a one bedroom cabin complete with kitchen and dining
area. We had our happy hour and dinner before watching the "Golden Girls" on TV.
The next morning we picked up one more participant at Hurkey Campground at
7:00AM and went to our roadhead up Apple Canyon Road to a trail not on the
topographic map. This trail met the PCT. First we went south to Spitler, having
lunch there. Then we went north to get Apache. We were back to the cars by
3:30PM, making this 3000 feet of gain and 8 miles round-trip. We decided to meet
in Idyllwild for pizza and beer before going home.
Everyone had a good time. We had eleven hikers on Saturday and nine on Sunday.
The names of the participants who joined us for both days were Ray Wolfe, Jim
Fujimoto, Magdalene Quinlan, Rocky Morton, Doug Hatfield, and Nancy Pearlman.
Barbara Cohen, Frank Goodykoontz, Bill Lien, and Al Craun joined us Saturday and
Bill Tryon was with us on Sunday.
