[pct-l] Interesting: emergency stations above Palm Springs

[abiegen at cox.net]

I did the Cactus to Clouds several years ago with about a dozen well seasoned hikers. If you go past the tram and continue to San Jacinto peak you will enjoy 10,500 ft elevation gain and 24 miles back to the Tram for a quick beer at the top and the last tram ride down. Of the dozen, I was the only one to make it to the peak. I will admit that after starting at 4am and climbing 8000 feet of tiny little switchbacks it is mentally very difficult to keep going past the restaurant at the top. I don't think that my friends were incapable of reaching the peak. They probably didn't think it was worth it. I have to admit that coming from that angle the peak, if you can call it that, was a disappointment. Just a pile of rocks on a relatively flat area with other piles of rocks that were not quite as high.

What got me to the top was accidentally running into a local woman who was doing the hike - more like a run for her - for the 23rd time. The trick is to out run the heat of the desert as the sun comes up. My friends took it slow at the beginning and didn't finish. I kept up with her for as long as I could and that got me past the morning sun.

This trail is literally a killer. It is relentlessly uphill. No small little stretch where it is level or take a dip downhill. It is covered with jumping cholla and other cactus. You have to watch every step. The heat is brutal if you don't beat it up the mountain. And of course, there is no way out, no shade, no water, and unfortunately at a certain point it is almost impossible to turn back and go back down to the 100 degree desert. So people continue up with deadly consequences sometimes.

Keep in mind that John Donovan was way off course. It is a few miles from the PCT so you shouldn't be near it. Some people that I had hiked with this year had gotten off course up there following clueless others. Look at the maps. The PCT makes a distinct turn away from the trail up to the peak. Take a wrong turn at that intersection and you are headed to the peak. Take another wrong turn and you are going in the same direction as John Donovan. But John was of track even from the wrong turn because that trail takes you to the tram, if you can find it under the snow. If you do loose the trail in the snow you won't wind up on the Cactus to Clouds trail because it is so narrow you won't be able to find it, and you will have to walk past the tram.

TrailHacker
"I can't think straight when my feet hurt."

P.S. I've renamed my "Thru-hiker 12 step program" to the "Thru-hiker 12 million step program" by popular demand. Maybe we''ll have a "friends of TrailHacker meeting" at the kickoff next year.