Cactus to Clouds trail question

[elcapitanjon]

Does anyone ever hike from behind the museum to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto and back? Is that distance 23miles one way or round trip?

[magikwalt]

The 23 miles is from the museum to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto and back to the tram station for a ride down. It would be 33 miles to walk back down to the museum.

[KathyW]

Sometimes people do the entire C2C hike. It's more like 31 or 32 miles with a little over 11,000' elevation gain and loss if you go down to the museum. I'm hoping to try it sometime soon unless we get snow on the route.

You have to make sure it's not a hot day when you hike back down - hiking down into Palm Springs when it's hot out can be deadly.

[KathyW]

It is pretty close to being a 50K - maybe there should be an annual C2C 50K race to raise money for our dedicated search and rescue teams.

[Ellen]

Howdy Kathy

I love your idea of creating an event to raise money for our search and rescue angels

To those new to this board, Kathy Wing helped in my rescue last year after my hiking misadventure. I cannot thank her, SAR, other board members, and my family enough for saving my life.

I'll be bringing a check to Jim Bakos for RMRU at Flat Rock on Nov 7.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[elcapitanjon]

when is it not a hot day in palm springs to hike down? I'm calculating it will be a 16 hour round trip for my wife and I. Wouldn't that mean that on our descent it would be cooling off?considering we timed our departure properly.

[neverwashasbeen]

elcapitanjon, I believe most folks consider triple digit highs too hot for hiking the lower mountain. Right now we are running from the low 100s to high 90s. This can be pretty uncomfortable on the mountainside. When we have highs in the 70s, many consider it prime hiking weather. We are hoping to see those temperatures on a consistent basis starting in November.

Happy Trails

[KathyW]

Ellen: Anyone of us can end up in a situation where we need to be rescued - I've had plenty of close calls out in the wilderness. It is really nice to know there are dedicated and trained search and rescuers out there for when we get ourselves into a pickle.

Is Jim still planning on being at Flat Rock on the 7th of November?

[Rick Kent]

Elcap, I did the full C2C up to the summit and all the way back down a few years ago. This was also the first and only time thus far that I've done C2C. Total round-trip time including slipping around on an icy trail to the summit was a little over 12 hours car to car. That was a fairly brisk pace. 16 is probably a reasonable estimate to go with for a more casual pace. On descent timing was perfect for me to follow the shadow of the mountain down so heat was no problem. I think this was in Feb however so heat wasn't likely to be a big problem anyway. I started in the dark and ended in the dark. The hardest part of the day is encountered when you try to pass by the tram walkway on your way back down. So tempting. Next month is probably the ideal time to do it.

[Zé]

Elcap, I did the full C2C up to the summit and all the way back down a few years ago. This was also the first and only time thus far that I've done C2C. Total round-trip time including slipping around on an icy trail to the summit was a little over 12 hours car to car. That was a fairly brisk pace. 16 is probably a reasonable estimate to go with for a more casual pace. On descent timing was perfect for me to follow the shadow of the mountain down so heat was no problem. I think this was in Feb however so heat wasn't likely to be a big problem anyway. I started in the dark and ended in the dark. The hardest part of the day is encountered when you try to pass by the tram walkway on your way back down. So tempting. Next month is probably the ideal time to do it.

RHT = KHT * k + 1

where

RHT = Real Hiking Time (hrs)
KHT = Kent's Hiking Time (hrs)
k = scaling factor, nominally set at 1.5. depends of fitness of course.
add 1 extra hour for breaks and stops for water

RHT(k=1.5) = 19hrs