Sitting a few hours east of LA on the edge of a large, hot desert is Mt San Jacinto, at 10,834 feet, and some of her neighboring peaks. In this large, hot desert, Palm Springs serves as an oasis with its somehow green golf courses, posh digs and fancy cars. If you look west out of the city the foothills of San Jacinto loom large.
Covered in coveted snow in the wintertime and cool temperatures in the summer. For accessibility's sake, a tram stretches from near the desert floor to about 8,000 feet.
I'd thought about hiking this peak, one of the three tallest in Southern California, briefly since I had arrived but focused most of my time on Mt Baldy probably because it was closer and I'd already hiked on the flanks of San Jacinto while walking through the area on the Pacific Crest Trail a year prior.
That all changed when I happened to learn of the "cactus to clouds" trail. This trail, coupled with the San Jacinto peak trail, has some of the largest elevation gain of any hike in the country. Well, that sealed it.
The trail starts behind the art museum in downtown Palm Springs, at 475 feet, and winds its way up to the top of the tram house and on to the peak at 10,834 feet. There you have it, 10,000 feet of climbing in one hike. Everybody has got to try this at least once.
From there began the planning stage which lasted all of 36 hours and basically entailed buying some maps and...well, that's it. Maps were necessary mostly due to the fact that the trail is not maintained for the first 11 miles or so, with no signs and no water, and is classified as "cross-country".
In order to avoid the crazy hot Palm Springs temperatures, I decided a night hike was in order so I saddled up and left the parking lot at 1 am with almost two gallons of water, a bunch of food and some backup gear.
Snakes were in the front of my mind as I shined my headlamp around, constantly scanning the ground. Faintly in my ear, as I climbed, I could hear some off key notes from a bar down below in the city as a karaoke singer belted out Purple Rain. The city lights sparked bright.
Climbing up and up, the noises of the city slowly faded replaced by the sound of a cool breeze rustling the thorny branches of the low lying scrub bordering the trail. Stars twinkled and the moon-less sky was black.
At times, through the beam of my headlamp, the trail disappeared but was easily found again upon closer examination. There is no organization managing the trail so its a bit of a free for all with trails crossing here and there and folks cutting switchbacks in favor of a steep up hill grade rather than an easier winding one.
After a solid five hours of hiking in the dark and a thousand feet below the first valley, the eastern sky turned red and I was more than happy to have the sun nearly at the horizon.
Ah, yes.
Now, with daylight and renewed rigor, my pace quickens and reach the lip of the trail and emerge into a valley onto a well marked freeway of a path. Only a few more thousand feet to go and I'm there. I made a few short climbs, did some long traversing and bam, I was at the top.
Looking SSE from the top of Mt San Jacinto
Looking NE, Palm Springs is down in the valley.
From the top, I hiked another 5.5 miles back to the tram and took it down to the valley where two incredibly nice folks gave me a ride back to my car, sparing me a 6 mile walk. It turned out to be a twelve hour hike from the desert up to the peak and back to the tram. All in all it was a great trip.
Incredible! I don't know anyone else like you. Safe travels.
Posted by: Mike Carr | October 26, 2009 at 08:06 PM