The hike starts on the desert floor in downtown Palm Springs, just south of Joshua Tree National Park, at an elevation of roughly 480 ft. To avoid the hot temperatures during the day, and to get a jump start on what would be a very long hike, we left Irvine at 2am, starting the hike at 3:40am. In a half-dream haze, we progressed with headlamps up a moderately steep incline for a few hours. Luckily, this Saturday in November there were a bunch of other people doing the same. On top of this, despite the fact that the trail isn't officially maintained, the local hiking community has done a very good job of marking the beginning stretch of the trail with white dots. The groups of hikers and the marked trails helped immensely as, typical with California hiking trails, there are plenty of cat trails to lead you astray. We might have gotten lost once or twice but the GPS helped to keep us on track.
The Palm Springs Police Department has installed two rescue boxes along the trail which contain water, food, and first aid in case there are hikers in dire straights. These boxes, on a good day, make for nice land marks along the trail. On a bad day, these boxes are the difference between food and hydration in unbearable heat and... well... death. At 5 am, 2.6 miles in, and about 2,300 feet up, we noticed the reflective tape on rescue box one. We were making good time! We didn't spend much time at the box and didn't take anything from the box, but we did make sure it was adequately supplied with water and protein bars.
After continuing the trek for another 2.5 miles, we made it to the 4,300 ft rocks, (which are actually at about 4,400 feet) just in time for the sunrise. We knew we were still making impeccable time because, at this point, we were high enough off of the desert floor at day break to escape the heat as the sun came up. After eating a little bit for breakfast, we were back at it. As we climbed, the foliage started getting much more dense and we were finding less cacti. This portion was a pretty steady 1,000 ft/mile climb.
Continuing along, we found rescue box two at about 7 miles in and 5,400 feet up. We stopped here for a longer break to transfer water from our bottles to our camel backs. Things stayed flat for about the next mile until you hit the large flat rock. After this rock, not only did we start to encounter an explosion of foliage (pine trees ... in the desert), but the vertical gain began to really pick up. Just before you reach the Palm Springs Ariel Tram at mile 9, there is a stretch of the trail that has a 1,000 foot elevation gain over the course of a half mile. We hike a lot of vertical trails and we both agreed that this was totally intense.
Eventually, we made the final false ascent (for now) to San Jacinto State Park. This was a surprising, idyllic, meadow filled with boulders and tall trees. On this day in particular the weather was a cool 60 with a light wind. We sat on a bench, pretty exhausted, and took an inventory of the food available. After contemplating the pros and cons a of nap (we decided against the nap), we snagged a permit from the rangers office and began out trek up the final 2,000 feet.
The hike was now familiar to our Colorado adventures. A steady climb up wooded areas with the occasional switch back. It wasn't long before we had made it to the clouds. Or at least a fantastic overlook called Wellman Divide. Here we stopped a bit, joked how we should summit Mount San Nap-cinto instead of Jacinto, and chatted with fellow hikers. One guy stood out where every time we saw him he had the same question: "Going up or going down?!" Once we let him know we were going up he would follow up with an enthusiastic "See you at the top!" We also relaxed with a pair of hikers and one was named Brandon. That would later become more important than we could have guessed.
Just a few more miles after our break, we made it to the top! On this windy day the clouds were moving fast over the peak. Looking down to where we started, it was hard to believe our bodies were the only things that carried us up here. It felt amazing. On the way down we stopped by a small hut, and dropped off the snacks we no longer needed. Turning in our permit near the tram station was the most rewarding.
We were just about to enter the tram station while the sun was setting when we were approached by rescue workers about to embark on a search for two hikers. They described a generic pair of white dudes wearing dark hiking gear. Amazingly, Neil asked if one of them was named Brandon, and indeed he was. We provided as much information we could and they felt at ease knowing the hikers were most likely still on trail. Not long after we purchased our tickets for the tram ride down, the rescue workers stopped by to let us know they found the hikers, giving Neil a high five.
The tram ride down put what we did into perspective. It felt like the descent never stopped, there was always another canyon or wall before you reached the bottom. We commented on the incredulous luck we had from planning for the hike. Perfect timing, perfect supplies, adequate energy. It wasn't until we reached the Aerial Tram parking lot did we realize we hadn't thought hard on how we would get back to the car (a solid 7 miles away). We put a lot of faith in the ability to get a Lyft, however we had limited, to no, cell service and dying cell phone batteries (again, we need to just bring digital cameras).
Luckily we got in contact with Neil's mom and secured a Lyft to downtown Palm Springs. It was Pride Week, which seemed like fun, but we were beyond tired at this point. Matt's glasses broke at some point during the day so Neil was a champion and drove us to her mom's house in Redlands. We had the best, most filling, homemade chili then crashed hard.
