Pacific Crest Trail: Mile 190 to 209

Ice covered pine needles at
Fuller Ridge Trailhead.

Section B
Fuller Ridge to I-10 Nobo
Miles: 9
Hikers: Dan & Gary

Lodging: Holiday Inn Express Banning, CA

Car Rental: Hertz Car Rental – Palm Spring Int’l Airport (car rentals from airports are easier as they are usually open later in the evening and through the weekend).

Dining: Fisherman’s Market & Grill, Banning, CA. This had great affordable seafood and has been featured on the TV Food channels. There is also one in Palm Springs – I’ve eaten at both and they are both excellent. I had their shrimp tacos – mmm.

Start: At Fuller Ridge Camp Site. From I-10 take Hwy 243 towards Idylwild. Turn left onto Black Mountain Trail (Forest Route 4S01) which is a well maintained dirt road with some short patches of pavement and go for a good 30 minutes. Another road merges with Black Mountain Trail about a third of the way up, but other than that just stay on the road. Eventually you’ll see a sign for Black Mountain Group campsite…keep going. About another mile up you’ll actually cross the PCT – although I don’t recall any signs visible from the road. There is a dirt road on the right with a sign for the Fuller Ridge trailhead. There is lots of parking and both times I was at this trailhead someone was camping here (not PCT hikers).

End: I-10. Off of I-10 take the Haugen-Lehman Way exit 110 which is right before the Hwy 111 exit to Palm Spring if you’re coming from LA. Go to the north side of I-10 and turn left on Tamarack Road. About 100 yards past the last house on your left you’ll be able to see where the dry river bed goes under I-10 (this is a big overpass – you can’t miss it). This is where the PCT goes under I-10 and you should be able to see the trail on both sides of the road. We drove back to the last house and paid them $20 to park in their gravel yard. They were very accommodating. I understand that cars left unattended here will get towed!!! Another option would be to go further north at mile 111.5 where the PCT crosses Desert View Rd where there is a parking lot. It just makes this hike a ½ hour longer but will assure you of have a car there when you arrive.

People along the trail: I saw more rattlesnakes (1) than hikers. The snake was in the middle of the trail just sunning and quickly slithered off the trail to let us pass. After we descended the San Jacintos just after the drinking fountain at WR206 we saw a pickup truck with a swamp cooler in the back bed blowing air into the cab. We stopped and talked to the occupant who was a security guard for the water facility further up the canyon. He had a few books in this truck – a necessity for his occupation.
Description: I would usually stay clear of the desert from May through September but it was a cooler than normal weekend. As we drove into Palm Springs the wind was blowing and it sprinkled a little. The plan was to drive up to the trailhead that night and sleep in the car so we could be on the trail at sunrise however the glowing Holiday Inn Express sign along the highway drew us in as we opted for a comfy bed over sleeping bags. We woke up before dark and enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast and drove about 40 minutes to the Black Mountain turnoff and then headed up another 30 minutes to the trailhead. It had rained here during the night and there was a coat of ice on the pine trees – glad we opted for the hotel. At first we were in very large pine trees with huge pine cones but we rapidly dropped out of the trees where we were exposed to the sun and the unbelievable vistas. For being so close to I-10 I thought we’d be looking at it all day but we were mostly looking back at the San Jacinto’s. This is similar to hiking down the Grand Canyon where you have nonstop views because of the lack of vegetation and the vertical descent. There was no water on this section until you got off the mountain at mile 206 where they have tapped into the public water supply and installed a drinking fountain & faucet. The trail starts at 7,500’ elevation and at the mile 206 (16 miles into the hike) you are at 1,500’ elevation – that’s a lot of down. Now comes the last 4.5 miles through a sandy river bottom in the hot afternoon desert sun….ugh. You quickly pass the small housing community of Snow Creek and start wandering through the desert. The trail wasn’t marked very well here although if you got off the trail and just kept walking in the river bottom you’d eventually see I-10 and the underpass where the trail goes. This was the most wearing hike so far because of the vertical descent and the sun/heat of the desert (even though it wasn’t over 90 degrees). We finally got to the underpass and there were 2 coolers filled with ice and sodas and beer!!!! A sign above it said “for PCT hikers.” I love trail angels.