Today the weather was pretty nice in the morning so we decided to go up into the mountains to the mountain hamlet of Idyllwild. Peggy and I have been to Idyllwild a few times previously but not in the last 15 or 20 years. We started our journey with a stop at a place called Abbie’s Cafe on the east side of Hemet. They were quite busy even at 11:00 AM and the place was amply stocked with about 85% really old people nibbling away at soft foods and giving furtive glances our way. I think they thought we were way too young to be dining in their greasy spoon. I know why they go there – my chicken fried steak and eggs and Peggy’s Reuben sandwich were good. Prices were reasonable and service was good.
From the cafe we continued east on SH-74 up a long, steep incline to a store in a place shown on the map as Mountain Center. The road to here was dry but there was some plowed snow on the edges of the paving which became snow everywhere as we approached the town. From here we turned north toward Idyllwild but only went about three miles before the road was covered with ice and we lost traction. We bravely chickened out by turning around and heading back down the hill although we did not quite feel ready to go home. We coasted back down the steep hill to Hemet and then turned northwest to go see something called Lake Perris State Park.
Lake Perris is another lake imitating a reservoir. There are extensive vacant camping areas and the only person we saw was a park ranger who had a voice squeakier than a dry barn door hinge who told us how to continue through the park going north and back onto civilian roads. On our way back south, we skirted a range of hills shown on the map as “The Badlands” but that had scant resemblance to the Badlands we saw in South Dakota last year. They were just soil hills peppered with big granite boulders. I was unable to ascertain what made these lands any badder than any other granite boulder and dirt mounds.
We finally drove back into Hemet, turned west and returned to our Wilderness Lakes campground although there don’t seem to be any lakes here. There are a couple of shallow ditches with water in them and acres of flooded farmlands but no lakes, per se.
We have a few pix which you can see by clicking here