5-9-16

Cactus to Clouds (part 1)

At 3am we started hiking from Palm Springs; elevation 487ft.

For 3 hours we wore our headlamps & had spectacular views of the city lights.

Robyn admiring the sunrise @ 5:51am.

It's always a great perspective the higher you hike. It's a very flat desert floor to the north of Palm Springs where Interstate 10 comes through.

Leaving the cactus below we begin reaching the clouds. See how the trail name "Cactus to Clouds" came about?

This trail has the highest total elevation gain in the U.S. and we've heard it's rated as 1 of the top 5 toughest day hikes in the county (because of the 10,400 ft elevation gain in a day). We found out about this hike last year & put it on our "To Do" list.

Really happy Robyn & Kata came along on this adventure! They are so much fun & like a little suffering too. :-)

At about 7,000 ft we reached snow & more clouds.

It was pretty & not too cold (yet)!

The trail was STEEP! The average incline was 18% for the first 11 miles & in parts hit a 41% grade!

We reached the ranger station at 11.5 miles & 8,500 ft. We refilled our water & put on all the warm coats, hats & mittens we had packed. The next 6 miles to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto were going to be cold & challenging.

A big challenge was the snow. It was deep & slippery in parts.

Other parts of the trail were clear & easy to hike. But the higher altitude was effecting our stamina & breathing. :-(

We kept pressing towards the top!

This is what we found on the summit…17 degrees & ICE.

Brrrrr…let's quickly take our summit shots & get out of here!!

Peak pics & part 2 tomorrow...