Off Trail Again
8/30 San Jacinto Peak via the Tram & Sid Davis route, 8.9 miles, 2,542 feet in elevation gain
My 4th attempt and 3rd summit of San Jacinto Peak this year. It was also my 29th San Jacinto summit over the past 10 years. I’ve hiked to San Jacinto Peak from at six different trailheads. The Tram (using various routes), Marion Mountain Trail, Fuller Ridge Campground, Deer Springs (using various routes), Devil’s Slide (using various routes), and of course Cactus to Clouds (C2C).
Today I arrived at the Palm Springs Aerial Tram Station at about 7am. There were only a small handful of hikers there that early. However, by the time the first tram took off around 8 am, there were easily about 50 or 60 people there. Temperatures at the lower tram station were already in the mid to upper 70’s. Once at the upper tram station temperatures dropped to a cool and comfortable 45 to 50 degrees.
I decided, today, I would take the regular trail (Round Valley Trail to the Peak Trail and the summit). I started and stopped my GPS device at the Ranger Station and recorded right at 5 miles to the summit with just over 2500 feet in total elevation gain. There were a handful of backpackers coming down from the summit as I headed up and I passed about 5 or 6 hikers that started just ahead of me. I wasn’t rushing up, but I did manage to summit in just over 2-hours.
At the summit, I enjoyed a peaceful 10 minutes of solitude before any other hikers arrived. I stayed up there for about 45-minutes and enjoyed several conversations with others. One who was completing his 100th summit of San Jacinto Peak. WOW!
My plan on the descent was to again take the normal route back down. Once I made it down about a mile or so, I couldn’t help myself, I turned off the Peak Trail and headed down via the ranger route. I wandered off track for a while and ended up coming down between Cornell Peak and Tamarack Valley Campground before getting back on the ranger route and heading out. My descent back to the ranger station ended up being 3.9 miles.
Another successful day on trail and on my favorite mountain! Great weather and lots of hikers and visitors (at the tram station). My 1.5-hour drive home took just over 2 hours. Not too bad for a Saturday afternoon. I even stopped and picked up some dinner to go in
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