Two hikes, two days, high desert... Why not?
I booked an AirBnb and a cat sitter, and headed to a usually hot Desert Hot Springs area. The weather forecast looked great, mid 70's on Saturday and 60's on Sunday - perfect hiking weather! The first hike was behind a gate. As I turned from the highway, the road became dusty and unpaved. My car did not like the washouts, but slowly and steadily we approached the gate where our fearless hike leader unlocked it and told me to drive another mile and a half towards the parking lot.
I parked and saw the rest of the group already set up for the night with tents and other backpacking gear. There was an option to camp at the site, but because I was too late to register for camping (oh, and I am so fond of camping...), I opted for an warm and clean AirBnb.
We started to hike Mission Creek Preserve Trail around 10.30 AM, a bit too late for my liking. Most of the hike was on the flat ground with some elevation gain in the middle and loss at the end as the trail ended at the narrow river (or was it a stream?).
The Pacific Crest Trail ran along the trail we were hiking. I felt a sense of accomplishment. This was not the first hike where I have hiked the PCT.
We stayed by the river for half an hour and ate lunch before returning back to the camping site and trail head where we left our group to go to the AirBnb.
We had dinner at Kimi Grill Japanese Restaurant. Sushi, seaweed salad and a hot sake completed this wonderful day. We finally were ready to go to our rental.
I had a few concerns about this AirBnb rental. Rarely do I book a place with few reviews, but I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the house I rented seemed like it had ongoing construction, no stove, or any kitchen supplies among other issues like missing furniture and an unresponsive host. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with AirBnb arguing that the rental did not match the description. It was quite a disappointing experience that I even had to do it making me reassess my favoritism of this rental platform vs VRBO that I might try next time.
Finally, we found a boombox, played rock music and danced shaking off any negativity caused by the whole situation. We decided to stay at the rental for the night instead of moving to the hotel.
In the morning, we drank some coffee using the only two mugs provided by the host and after breakfast in town we headed to the trail head of Indian Trail Loop.
The hike was a shorter one, only 6.5 miles with about 1,000 ft elevation change. The views were different even though we were pretty much in the same area.
We were not able to climb the main mountain because our hike leader had to return to civilization, but the views were still pretty great!
Such a relaxing weekend (minus the AirBnb ordeal). I so enjoy hiking!
I booked an AirBnb and a cat sitter, and headed to a usually hot Desert Hot Springs area. The weather forecast looked great, mid 70's on Saturday and 60's on Sunday - perfect hiking weather! The first hike was behind a gate. As I turned from the highway, the road became dusty and unpaved. My car did not like the washouts, but slowly and steadily we approached the gate where our fearless hike leader unlocked it and told me to drive another mile and a half towards the parking lot.
I parked and saw the rest of the group already set up for the night with tents and other backpacking gear. There was an option to camp at the site, but because I was too late to register for camping (oh, and I am so fond of camping...), I opted for an warm and clean AirBnb.
We started to hike Mission Creek Preserve Trail around 10.30 AM, a bit too late for my liking. Most of the hike was on the flat ground with some elevation gain in the middle and loss at the end as the trail ended at the narrow river (or was it a stream?).
The landscape at the top was truly incredible. Desert-like dried grass appeared even dryer with lack of rain. "How could there be any water here?", I wondered. And there it was...
The Pacific Crest Trail ran along the trail we were hiking. I felt a sense of accomplishment. This was not the first hike where I have hiked the PCT.
We stayed by the river for half an hour and ate lunch before returning back to the camping site and trail head where we left our group to go to the AirBnb.
We had dinner at Kimi Grill Japanese Restaurant. Sushi, seaweed salad and a hot sake completed this wonderful day. We finally were ready to go to our rental.
I had a few concerns about this AirBnb rental. Rarely do I book a place with few reviews, but I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the house I rented seemed like it had ongoing construction, no stove, or any kitchen supplies among other issues like missing furniture and an unresponsive host. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with AirBnb arguing that the rental did not match the description. It was quite a disappointing experience that I even had to do it making me reassess my favoritism of this rental platform vs VRBO that I might try next time.
Finally, we found a boombox, played rock music and danced shaking off any negativity caused by the whole situation. We decided to stay at the rental for the night instead of moving to the hotel.
In the morning, we drank some coffee using the only two mugs provided by the host and after breakfast in town we headed to the trail head of Indian Trail Loop.
The hike was a shorter one, only 6.5 miles with about 1,000 ft elevation change. The views were different even though we were pretty much in the same area.
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| Ruins... |
We were not able to climb the main mountain because our hike leader had to return to civilization, but the views were still pretty great!
Such a relaxing weekend (minus the AirBnb ordeal). I so enjoy hiking!
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