esrosedotblog

IDYLLWILD

We took a Jeep ride to the mountains today. Lisa lives in the Massachusetts Berkshires, so trees and woods are not very special. But, she has never seen anything like our mountains and the miles of wilderness; to say nothing of chaparral, pinion pine, lodge pole pine and the like. Neither had we; until we came out here.

We went up the back way through Banning and up, up and away by 243 through Pine Cone (pop. 32) to Idyllwild. We stopped at a few lookouts. It was neat. John and I had not been up there since Christmas Day 2002. We used Idyllwild as a substitute for an aborted holiday trip up the east side of the Sierra to Reno and back down the west side. The trip was wiped out by ten feet of snow between Lee Vining and Reno. We wanted the snow but not that much. We settled for a two hour ride to Idyllwild at the top of the mountain, two feet of snow and slippery ice here and there, 20 degree weather, and a great dinner at one of the local restaurants. Then we came back down to the desert; the shortest winter you can get.

We skipped last year because we had a new arrival in the house; Franklin. It is not likely we could have taken him for dinner and we didn't feel OK about leaving him home. Today was his first long ride in the Jeep (four hours) and his first trip to another location. First lunch (outside) away from home. He took his little food and water pack. We rode the alpine meadows and fast drop switchbacks of Route 74 back down into the desert valley. We all had a great time. Naps for all.