Cactus to Clouds
On Saturday, Billy, Ethan, Dave and I completed the Cactus to Clouds hike/run from Palm Springs to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto (named by Backpacker.com as the fifth hardest day hike in the US).
Our adventure started at 5:45am at the Skyline Trail trailhead at the Palm Springs Art Museum (elevation: 450′) and we reached the summit of Mt. San Jacinto (elevation: 10,834′) about 6.5 hours later (with a long stop at the tram station on our way up). The climb is a killer – the first 10 miles (to the tram) are relentless steep to very steep terrain; the last 5 are less steep, but at that point we were exhausted from the first 10 and dealing with higher altitude. From the summit, we went back down to the tram station and instead of running back down the Skyline trail, we opted to take the tram back to Palm Springs.
Thankfully we had pretty much perfect weather; even at the summit we were comfortable in t-shirts. Sunrise from the Skyline Trail was beautiful and the 360 degree views from San Jacinto are spectacular. It was an excellent day and an adventure I’d definitely go do again.
For more details and photos, check out Billy’s blog recap. Also, Ethan’s working on a video, which I’m sure will be rad and I’ll post here when he finishes it.