After almost 2 years without going backpacking, I finally hit the trail again. Our group (Huey, Tim T, Tim G, Koda and me) camped one night in Fisherman’s Camp at the end of the Tenaja Trail. The trailhead is located in the Cleveland National Forest, about 15 miles southwest of Temecula. We actually passed through Murrietta to get there. It was the first time out in the wilderness for a few of the guys, so I was expecting it to be a pretty interesting trip. It’s safe to say that we got more than we bargained for.

The weather was close to perfect. Forecasts was calling for a high of 80 and a low of 55, so my 15 degree Marmot bag was pretty much overkill. The hike from the trailhead to the campsite is roughly 3 miles downhill. The trail was pretty an established trail that was very easy to follow. For the most part, the trail was about 4-5 feet wide but did narrow down to almost nothing in many areas. You can tell that it has not been visited much in recent months because of the amount of overhanging shrubbery that covered many parts of the trail. Almost needed a machete.

It was Koda’s first time out in the wild, so I was pretty eager to see how he would react to everything. Overall, he was fine, but I felt so bad for him when seamingly every little bit or brush and plant life would cling to his coat. It was pretty crazy. He looked like an old homeless dog. He was also super tired. I think 3 miles is probably the longest walk he’s ever been on, and it didn’t help that he had a backpack full of water on. He’s pretty out of shape and, of course, that is my fault. I trained him with his pack on for about a week or so, but obviously not enough.

About a mile out from the trail head, we experienced our first adventure. Tim G was leading the hike and I was in the rear of the group. We were rounding a corner, and, all of a sudden, I heard a “Whoa!” I saw them backup a few steps and heard what sounded like a loud sprinkler head on a golf course, a sound I’ve heard hundreds of times. Again, it went, this time a little louder. There was a rattlesnake on the edge of the trail that rattled at Tim G and then slowly slithered off into the thicket on the right edge of the trail. Everyone was pretty freaked out by now and we decided to take a few steps back and regroup. Someone suggested that we wait and let the snake go away and we did just that. Five minutes later we quickly rushed passed that area and continued our hike.

Arriving at the campsite was a little anticlimactic. I envisioned a lush area with some sort of water nearby. It is Fishermans Camp! But, to our dismay, the camp site was pretty small, probably enough for two groups and it seemed like it hasn’t been camped in for years. The flowing river that I envisioned was as dry as a desert. What I learned later was that this river only flows during heavy storms and that hasn’t happend for a while. I should have done a little more research and asked the local ranger about the camp site. I felt kinda stupid because I told the guys to bring fishing poles just in case.

While we were unpacking our gear and setting up our tents, it seemed that all the critters in the neighborhood came out to greet us. The gigantic red ants were scurrying around near our tents. The annoying little flies were buzzing around us everywhere. And most freaky were our friends, the rattlesnakes. I guess they have relatives by our camp. We heard rattles about 150 feet away from us on two sides. So we were having a grand time by then. Luckily by sunset, the flies and the ants dissappeared and we finally had some peace and quiet. After a while we forget about the rattlesnakes, but no one wanted to do a number 2 anymore!

The evening was lest eventful and I ended up sleeping around 9:30pm. Again, it wasn’t that cold, so I ended up sleeping with the bag unzipped and still it was warm. We didn’t have room for Koda in any of the tents, so I staked him right outside our tent. I laid out the tent footprint for him and he was able to lay on that. I was a little worried about him being outside by himself since there are all kinds of critters out there. I ended up waking up a few times looking out for him. But he was fine.

In the morning, we set out to go home pretty early. We were on our way home by 8am. Our hike back was way more difficult. I guess I didn’t realize how downhill the trip out was because on the way in, it seemed like we were always facing a steep hill. It was pretty tiring, thank goodness, we ate a lot of our food and pretty much finished all our water. Otherwise, it would have been even more exhausting.

We were almost home. Half mile to go until the trailhead. I was in the lead of the group and everyone else was close behind. We were passing an area where the cliff was on our left and there as a hill filled with brush on our right. All of a sudding, I heard a loud “Purrrrrrrrrrrroar!” coming from the right. It was in between a really loud purr and soft roar. Quickly, It hit me that it was a mountain lion. I was in disbelief but realized that we better hurry. I glanced to the right of us but did not see anything. I yelled out to everyone to just keep going as I hurried passed that area. About 3 seconds later, I glanced back and Tim G was still looking over to the right with everyone stuck behind him. They were already about 20 feet behind me and the rest of the guys were telling him to go. They began to hurry along the trail and caught up to me. Luckily we were going downhill about to cross a stream and were on the otherside on another hill. Looking behind us, we saw nothing following. We were all pretty tired but scared as hell. We finished the last half mile all uphill without taking a break. It was insane.

So things I’ve learned from this trip.

1. Tenaja means pools of water in some native american dialect
2. Ants and flies go away about an hour before sunset.
3. Sleeping in the wild is scary as hell, yet liberating.
4. Baby rattlesnakes can’t control the amount of venom they excrete, so they are the most dangerous
5. Take mountain lion warning signs seriously.
6. When you fear for your life, the adrenaline just takes over.

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