Motor & Mosey

Despite both being active, outdoor people, my boyfriend and I have very different backgrounds. He was raised soaking up the sun on the beach and in the desert, riding waves and conquering dusty single tracks. I, on the other hand, grew up shrouded in misty mountain clouds and low lying fog, running rooty trails and dipping my toes into glacier fed lakes.

This past weekend we made the 2-hour trek up to Idyllwild, a town that was a near perfect marriage of our outdoor loves.

We camped (his very first time tent camping, a fact that was very hard for me to wrap my Washington brain around!) just outside of town at the Idyllwild County Park, a well-kept campground scattered with beautiful boulder formations and shaded by tall pines. Due to the long-standing SoCal drought campfires were not allowed, but luckily I was able to pick up a GIGANTIC s’mores cookie from Cravory on the way out of San Diego. That bad boy kept our cravings for the campfire favorite at bay all weekend.

Saturday morning we saddled up on our mountain bikes and joined 100 other MTBers for the inaugural Idyllwild MTB Festival, hosted by HUB Cyclery. The event kicked-off with group rides exploring Idyllwild’s 75 miles of single track trail and ended with an afternoon of live music, free flowing Culture Mosaic IPA, and laughing with new friends. It’s amazing how 3 hours of getting beat up by nature really brings people together.

Sunday we switched gears (pun intended) and ventured into the San Jacinto Wilderness for a 6.7 mile out and back hike up to Suicide Rock. We certainly felt the effects of the elevation gain, being sea-level dwellers, but the beautiful hike with gorgeous views of Tahquitz Peak was well worth it.

All in all, it was a wonderful wild weekend. Idyllwild treated us right, and we will be back.