Horsethief to Wild Horse

Funny how plans sometimes don’t come to fruition, causing a reset in the weekend calendar.  Those cancelled plans brought a great day to our life’s memories that may just not have happened otherwise.  Original plans were to camp in bare minimum cabins in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  Susan even had the cabins booked, and I had our loop hike to the peak of Cuyamaca in the San Diego Backcountry all planned out.  Well, about a month after booking, the cabin fee was refunded as the campground would be undergoing renovations and the forest service couldn’t guarantee that our cabins would be available.  Nevertheless, we decided that we would still go even though it would be first come first serve basis.  Not a problem for us, we will pack the tents and camping gear and hope for the best.  This was still the plan until Tuesday, 3 days before we were leaving.  Susan’s family ditched us, husband had a golf tournament, and the kids had a date with opening day at Mammoth Mountain.  Hard to compete with those options.  Hindsight, maybe we should have hit Mammoth, the snow looked positively breathtaking!  So I convinced her to scrap the camping plans with the promise that I would plan a hike and we would eat the Sequim crab that we brought home this summer for dinner!  So the research began, using the Afoot & Afield Orange County book, I narrowed my options to 8 miles or more, preferably no biker trail, and a loop.

Those options make for slim pickings, so I settled for 10 miles and a loop in the Santa Ana Mountains, West Horsethief Trail to Trabuco Canyon, gain of 2700’ elevation, and would use my pole to zap any bothersome bikers.

By Friday, the night before, I recruited two TB’s, Susan and Shana, and two TS’s, Steve and Kolby.  Kolby, my son, is a newbie Trail Stud as this would be his first official Whine2wine excursion.  Unlucky for him, there wouldn’t be wine waiting for him at home, but Susan promised to bring the s’mores that she had purchased for this weekend.  We hit the road at 7 am, but due to the daylight savings, this is actually a little later than the other hikes, and the sun had already risen.  We drove 35 minutes to the turnoff of Trabuco Canyon Creek Road, this is where our apps stopped giving directions, as this is a dirt road, recommended for high clearance vehicles only.  We had to go 5.6 miles down this road to the trailhead of West Horsethief (WHT), no problem right?  Holy moly, was it rough!  Glad I was driving and not in the backseat, as Susan, Shana, and Kolby were probably glad the seat belts worked.  I tried to avoid them, but I probably hit every pot hole as I am not completely experienced in dirt driving.  Steve helped me navigate the car over deep trenches and lumpy dirt roads.

I figured we were out in the middle of no man’s land, until we started passing houses, cabins, a volunteer Fire Station; Dorothy , I don’t think we are in Orange County any more.  My TB’s were questioning my choice at this point, but hey it is an adventure, worst case we hike back on the road as we had no cell service to call for help.  We passed the parking lot to the Holy Jim Trail head, which takes you up to Santiago Peak (Saddleback).  That was when the road got really rough, but we persevered and finally came to the end of the road where there were 5 other cars.  I didn’t expect to see that many already, considering there is only room for about 6-7 cars, I guess we lucked out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We squeezed into a make shift parking space, suited up, hung up the adventure pass, and set all our gadgets this time before hitting the trail at 8:20 am.  It was quite chilly as the sun hasn’t hit the bottom of the canyon yet.   But in reading up on this trail, I knew we needed to get to the switchbacks before the sun did, otherwise it could be a brutal hot hike up.  Kolby and Steve led the pack through the bottom of the canyon, which was rocky, green, and peaceful.  We came upon the shot up car wreck fairly quickly and took a couple of photos.  Makes you wonder, where it came from and why?

About 1.7 miles (according to AllTrails), we came to the Trabuco Canyon trail head.  This is the trail I am hoping to find somewhere up on the ridge and return on.  Continuing up the WHT, a nice slight incline, we rounded a corner and got a glimpse into the abyss of the canyon, it was breathtakingly beautiful.  There were vibrantly green pine trees that just seemed so out of place, it was almost magical.  Pictures don’t do it justice.

We could see ahead of us the switchback part of the trail that would lead us to the Main Divide Road, which is a dirt road starting off the Ortega Highway and ending at Santiago Peak.  Once we hit the switchbacks, the whining started, but ceased as soon as we turned to look at the view.  We could see all the way to Catalina Island through a small v in the mountain ranges.

Continuing up, we kept turning around to look at the view, and it was bigger and better every time.  Can’t you just hear it?  Whine, ahh, whine, ahh, whine, ahh…kinda sounds like whiner?  The view opened up to include Newport Fashion Island to the ports in San Pedro with a rare glimpse of San Clemente Island in the background.  The day was perfect, not too hot or windy, and the skies were clear.  About halfway up, we come to a man in camo with a gun, Susan asked what he was hunting.  He said deer.  I am thinking, he is probably protecting some pot farm close by.  Yes, I watch too many movies, read too many thrillers, I know, stop judging.  He was nice enough and promised not to shoot us, after I asked him not too. Susan and I continued, and sure enough, what comes galloping down towards us, Gazelle.

She tried to convince Kolby to join her in her quest to find us, but he was the smart one, knowing that he would have to hike back up AGAIN.

Steve and Kolby summited first, with Shana right behind them, and Susan and me about 5 minutes behind.  The views up on top rocked.  We headed to the trail end at Main Divide Road where we stopped for a small break and even though the sun was out, it was a little chilly at the top.  We could see Santiago Peak in the background, seemed so close.   A dirt biker and a new truck (Steve could tell you what it was) passed us, while we sat there munching.  Also, some dude, out of nowhere, walking, passed us, heading down the WHT with just a sling bag.  I said hi, but he wasn’t stopping to chit chat and hurried on down the trail, pot farm worker on shift relief?  Definitely didn’t fit the hiker profile.

We packed up our packs again and started hiking right on the Main Divide Road, we had about 2.6 miles to go to reach the trail head of Trabuco Canyon.  Now I thought this would be BORING.  Boy, was I wrong.

We had views of Mount Baldy, San Gorgonio Mountain, San Jacinto Peak, clear views of the 15 as it snakes by Lake Matthews and Lake Elsinore.  We ran into a couple at the trailhead of East Horsethief trail, they graciously took our group photo.  EHT trail is about 4 miles long, and we could see it below us, leading into a housing tract near Lake Elsinore.  Continuing along the Main Divide Road, it offered some shelter from the sun, which dropped the temp about 15 degrees, but most of the road was unshaded, so I could imagine it being very hot and miserable in the summer months.

We came upon a random folding chair, where Steve offered to show us his best Magic Mike moves. Lucky or unlucky, depending how you look at it, he kept his clothes on.  When I figure out how to upload the video to YouTube and stream it here, you gotta come back and check it out.

 

We finally came to the junction of the Main Divide Road and Los Pinos Trail (a long ass up and down 9 mile trail) and Trabuco Canyon Trail.  Whew found it!  I did have a backup plan if we missed it, continue hiking until we found civilization and hoping Uber would bring us back to my beloved Durango.  However, I wasn’t sure how far the Uber driver would drive down the dirt road to my car.  Luckily for us, we wouldn’t have to use the backup plan.  I just want you to know, I am always thinking.

We started down the trail which was completely different from the WHT, foliage, trees, and acorns.  Kolby collected some acorns, complete with the hats on!  Gotta get the kids out of the cities!!

 

We were passed by about 5 bikers going up, whom we yielded to, seems like a fun bike trail.  We came to a bend in the trail which seemed like a dried river bed and decided to plop here for a second snack stop.  Shady and peaceful, Shana dropped trow on the trail as I watched for people coming up and Steve guarded the way down.  Using a tree as a pole… never mind, digressing again.  After snack two, we packed up, I swiped all my apps closed on my phone to save battery, and continued on our way. We came to a part of the trail that was very rocky, one side went straight down into the canyon and the other side a rocky vegetated mountain side, still beautiful.  It was a little tricky as the descending trail required you to pay attention to the rocks you were stepping on.  Poles came in very handy. Luckily for Susan, who forgot her poles this time, Kolby graciously offered up the poles he brought.  Then proceeded to use mine, so Shana shared one of hers with me.  Thanks guys!!  You make hiking fun!  That’s all I want to do…. Name that tune!  We finally converged on to the WHT after about 2.5 miles on the Trabuco Canyon trail, where I checked my Walk app, and realized I swiped it closed too.  So much for my mileage today, sigh!

It was quite warm down in the canyon at 2 pm, glad we started early.  Kolby, Steve, and Sue, decided to play 20 questions.  Originally Kolby suggested “I Spy”, but that would prove to be problematic.  So I came into this 20 question game, when Sue and Kolby were guessing what Steve was thinking about.  These were the clues that I gathered: Steve knows of two of them on the trail (could be more), they are growing, contains fluid…  I won’t tell you where we went with the clues, but the answer of blisters, was definitely not one of our first choices.

We finally and gladly made it back to the car, which was still there, always a plus.  I unloaded a couple of chairs so we could sit around and enjoy some beverages without having to stand.  A little happy picnic, not!  There were so many flies that you constantly needed to move around to keep them off of you.

We did get to help a trail runner who fell and scrapped her hand pretty badly, with some water and first aid assistance.  Good deed for the day!  So we finished our beverages, packed up, and I gave the keys to Steve and told him to take us back to the OC.  It was a little tricky navigating out, as the sun was directly in our eyes, which made it difficult to see all the potholes.  However, he did a much better job than me, as he didn’t scrap the bottom once.  I think I scraped the under carriage twice.  Ooops.  Anyway, home by 4:30 pm, and enjoyed some Wild Horse cabernet with our Dungeness Crabs!  Definitely a fantastic way to spend our Saturday!

Stats: 34,309 steps, 321 flights of stairs, 2 liters of water, 2 blisters (Steve’s), 3 bottles of wine – The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead. – Marjorie Pay Hinckley