![]() 1 Another great sunrise over Palm Springs. A crisp morning with temps in the 40s and on the trail by 6:15am. I had been toying with the idea of doing the full Cactus-to-Clouds-to-Cactus round trip (which I hereby dub C2C2C) in the Spring. That would be roughly 34 miles and 11,000' up, then 11,000' down. To do that, I needed to get familiar with going down the Skyline trail (something I had never done before). This was a scouting trip to gain that familiarity. |
![]() 2 Perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky. Similar time of day as past trips, but much different lighting given that it's a different time of year. |
![]() 3 Panorama overlooking the desert floor from a few thousand feet up. |
![]() 4 First view of San Gorgonio with some snow still on top from the last storm. I'm not figuring on hitting any snow below Long Valley today. |
![]() 5 The desert floor from about 4,500' above sea level. |
![]() 6 Our first glimpse of Long Valley. So close, but yet so very far... |
![]() 7 Coach Dru is going strong at around 6000'. |
![]() 8 Coach Dru in the chapparal tunnel. |
![]() 9 Coach Dru at the obligatory C2C photo spot. |
![]() 10 Our first sign of snow and it's only around 6500'. We might be hitting more snow than I thought. |
![]() 11 7000' and things start getting really steep. |
![]() 12 There's snow on the trail for most of the last mile. It's a thin layer of snow over hard pacled ice, which isn't too bad on the way up, but was treachorous on the way down. 1500'/mile on ice can be a challenge. |
![]() 13 Coffman's Crag. |
![]() 14 Really icy steep grade narrow trail = one heck of a workout. Stabilizing muscles are working overtime. I had a pair of YakTrax Pros with me, which we didn't use on the way up. On the way down, we split the pair, each wearing one. It helped somewhat, but I was still on my ass several times. Coach Dru on the other hand seemed to have great ice traction. |
![]() 15 Made it to Long Valley! Almost exactly six hours to here from the Art Museum. |
![]() 16 Still plenty of snow in Long Valley and there was another storm due within the next couple of days. |
![]() 17 While we were in Long Valley, we ran into some well known locals from the San Jacinto Message Board. One was Ellen Coleman (aka Ellen the Hut), the others I believe were Cy and Alan. Ellen became famous for breaking her leg while snowshoing below the summit in the winter. She had to crawl 3 miles back uphill in the snow to the summit shelter and stay for 2 days in a blizzard before being rescued (read Ellen's story). |
![]() 18 The always amazing view from the lodge balcony. It was a busy weekend day and we got the usual stares from the urban tourists wondering what the heck we were doing in all our hiking gear. |
![]() 19 Coach Dru on the balcony overlooking Palm Springs more than 8000' below. |
![]() 20 Me on the balcony. |
![]() 21 Unlike on previous trips, we still had to hike all the way back down there! We had agreed before entering the lodge not to be tempted by the heat, food, and 10 minute tram ride down. We were going to go down the real way! The message board folks had warned us that would not be fun... |
![]() 22 It was definitely a different look heading back down to sea level. As the sun got lower, the lighting on the hills was amazing. |
![]() 23 Getting close to sunset over the desert. You can see the Salton Sea in the far right of the picture. For some reason, I don't remember ever having seen it so clearly before. Maybe because of the light reflection at this time of day. |
![]() 24 Our only wildlife sighting for the day. He/she was standing right on the trail maybe 15' in front of me when I startled it and it went bounding off down the hill. |
![]() 25 A "twilight mode" shot with the camera. It's actually much darker than it looks. At this point, the sun has set and the downhill is really starting to become a grind. 8000' of nonstop descent at almost 1000'/mile average is brutal. |
![]() 26 I've never seen such a perfect moonrise. A full moon (or very close to it) starting as a tiny sliver over the mountain and rising in a matter of minutes. |
![]() 27 The "Long Valley 8 miles, 10 hours" rock sign illuminated only by the moon and the lights of Palm Springs. It is actually much lighter than the camera is able to capture. We hiked for well over an hour in the dark with no headlamps. The full moon, together with the tennis courts, baseball stadium, and the rest of Palm Springs, provided just enough light to hike by as long as you kept your eyes focused on the ground. If you looked out at the city at all, you would be blinded for several seconds until your eyes re-adjusted. |
![]() 28 Panaromic view of the full moon over Palm Springs. A major goal of this trip was to determine how hard the trail is to follow on the way down, particularly in the dark. Overall, it wasn't too bad. We lost the trail briefly though at the Ramon trail junction (at the picnic tables) and finally had to put on the headlamps. You really can't get too lost with the city right below you, but it would probably take a lot longer to get down doing it off-trail. |
![]() 29 Made it back to the museum. 6 hours up, 4:45 down. Definitely not 2:1 downhill given the icy conditions and then the darkness. I definitely learned a lot of valuable lessons should I decide to do the full summit round trip in the Spring. That will be one heck of an endeavor... |