Day 17 (18 April) - Mile 151.86 (Plus 10 mile detour) - Additional 10 mile detour

Hurkey Creek Park to Idyllwild, CA

We woke up feeling better about today's hike then yesterday's especially knowing that we would be checking into a hotel. Today we should have less highway walking and more trail walking. There is a mountain bike trail that leads out of this campground that runs parallel to Highway 74 and then another trail that heads up to Idyllwild. So off we went. 

We found the mountain bike trail with no problem and just made sure it kept following the highway.

Much better than the road walk.

That was a big tree. 

Beautiful pines with the mountains in the background. 

After a couple of miles we noticed the trail was heading away from the highway, so back to the highway we went. We did have to climb a fence first.

Hum...is this private property?

We only had to walk the highway for about 1 mile then we turned up a side road that after about another mile (straight up) we came to this trailhead:

Take us to Idyllwild and the hotel room. 

The traill lasted a few miles and mostly followed the power lines up to Idyllwild.

Powerline trail.

Even though we were anxious to get to town, we did stop and smell the pine cones.

Pine cones the size of your head.

We finally made it to the outskirts of town and eventually made our way to the center of town. 

THOSE WHO THOUGHT WE SHOULD TAKE THE RIDE FROM PARADISE VALLEY CAFE TO IDYLLWILD CONTINUE HERE. 

We made it to our hotel in Idyllwild and was welcomed with a great sign:

Idyllwild Inn - Very hiker friendly. 

We go to check in and they don't have our reservation. What?  We made reservations yesterday for 2 nights. We then figured out that today is Friday and our reservation is for Saturday. We thought it was Saturday today. Oops. We don't even know what day it is!  Anyway, Laura called around town and found a place with a vacancy for tonight and we will go back to the Idyllwild Inn tommorow night.  

First things first, shower and then laundry. So we showered and jumped into our raingear. Huh?  What?  That's right. All of our other clothes are dirty, so off to the laundromat we went in our raingear.

Only way to do laundry.

You have to check out these pictures of Idyllwild!  Just like a postcard. All these pictures are taken in the town center looking in different directions.

Needless to say, we are going to stay here 2 nights and enjoy the rest. But, before we get to sleep there is one place we needed to check out:

Great beer selection!

Now with a yummy beer in our bellies we will enjoy a good nights sleep showered, clothes washed, and in an actual bed.