C2C hike by first timers

[plockwoo]

We few in to do the full Cactus to Clouds round trip on Saturday, November 9. We arrived in Palm Springs friday night and started hiking Saturday at 4:15 am, so we had absolutely no familiarity with the area before starting out.

I thought our experience may be useful to other complete neophytes.

A few quick things from our trip.

1. Even for someone who knows nothing of Palm Springs, the museum trail head is easy to find.

2. We found the trail surprisingly little used. There were hikers in the parking lot suiting up when we arrived, but we saw very few on the Skyline portion of the trail. Going up, we passed two groups and one solo hiker caught us. Going down, we passed one miserable looking backpacker with a big overnight pack struggling to go up at night. That was it. I expected more hikers on a Saturday in November.

3. We picked a great day to hike. We wore shorts and t-shirts the whole hike and felt very comfortable from start to finish--never hot or cold.

4. What a different world the 12 miles in the state park are from the desert hiking on the Skyline. I loved the contrasts. It's what makes this such an awesome trip -- worth flying all the way from Pennsylvania to do.

5. Doing the full round trip is a big commitment. We didn't fly across the country just to take the tram down, so we hiked back to Palm Springs. I think my impression of this trip would have been so different if we had not hiked down. We felt great when we passed the tram on the way down, but were spent by the time we reached the bottom. Going down was really hard for two reasons. First, the trail is so steep that hiking down really works your legs. Second, it got dark, and finding our way through that maze of side trails in the dark forced us to slow down.

6. The area around the picnic tables was bewildering to us--we went through that area in darkness both ways. It seemed like trails zigzagged everywhere in this section. On the way down, I was overly worried about taking the other trail to the north, so we favored every trail or psuedo trail that leaned southwards. That proved to be a mistake.

Our one dumb mistake came at the very end. We found a very well beaten path to follow, but then realized it was heading down the wrong side of the last ridge. I didn't want to turn around because we were really tired and it looked like the trail we were on would lead us into a nice looking neighborhood with some impressive looking swimming pools. We didn't have a car at the trailhead, so we thought that would just call a cab from there and be done. The problem was that in the dark, we didn't see the huge earthen wall between us and the town until way too late. Then we discovered that we were in a flood control zone that is fenced in with barbed wire. So after a very long day of hiking, we finished our trip by climbing a barbed wire fence. Don't go that way!

C2C is an awesome hike -- worth coming a long way for. If I lived closer, I'd definitely do it again.

[HH8]

A few quick things from our trip.

Thanks for bringing a little "brotherliness" to our neck o' the woods. Hope to hear from you again.

[Perry]

So after a very long day of hiking, we finished our trip by climbing a barbed wire fence. Don't go that way!

That is really funny. Thanks for sharing.