hiking up skyline

[DickW]

So I'm from back east but think I can get in good enough shape to do Skyline in October. Everyone says the trail from the museum, particularly down low is difficult to follow until you get to painted rock, especially in the dark. How hard is it really to stay on track if you're generally pretty good at orientation. Are there any tricks to it. Do I need a GPS to keep from wasting time finding the trail in the dark? Thanks for your advice.

[Norris]

Opinions will differ, but mine is that a GPS preloaded with a recent track will help a first time hiker using the museum start. The main issue is that people have created so many shortcuts by cutting switchbacks that one can waste time trying to decide between alternatives.

[cynthia23]

It's such a snarled mess that you would really be much better off starting Skyline from the Ramon road trailhead. It adds a couple of minutes, but you will likely lose much more than that trying to find your way in the utter mess that is the Desert Museum trail.

[Ed]

Norris and Cynthia captured it well. I could have used more colorful language.

On a weekend in late October, there are often quite a few people on the trail from the Desert Art Museum, as many as two or three dozen. Some of them will be stumbling around, but others know the trail well. It certainly would help to scout the trail, up to the painted message on the rock just above the junction between the Ramon Road and Desert Art Museum trails, the day before in the daylight. After that, the trail is fairly easy to follow in the dark.

[zippetydude]

I don't know that I disagree with them, but you have a couple other options. You could start at the museum trail and follow someone else who's already done the trail before (there are tons of veterans, and you could always join the Mt. San Jacinto Hiking Club and go with one of their groups as well). Alternatively, I have posted here many times that, upon starting at the museum, if you will stay to the right every time you are presented with a fork in the trail, it will take you up to the picnic tables with only one false lead, which is about 1/2 way up and 15 feet long. That's how I do it, and I've led groups up who thought it was miraculous that I could weave my way through so confidently in utter darkness...until I told them the very simple secret. In any case, you don't lose anything by starting at Ramon, and the trail has been wonderfully consolidated over on that side. While it's a little longer, it's also less steep, so it's not a bad choice.

I like to start at the museum for 3 reasons. One, you get a great view back down at Palm Springs if you start in the darkness, and it makes that first part very enjoyable if you stop and look back down at the lights. Two, it's a shorter cab ride back, which saves a little time and a few $. Three, I've never had my car broken into by the museum, but by all accounts the rather hidden area at the Ramon trail head has unfortunately had occasional break ins. In short, you'll probably be fine no matter how you do it. Hope you have a grand adventure on Skyline!

z

[Ed]

Haven't seen the ZRule before, I will certainly give it a try.

[DickW]

It's taken me awhile to get back on-line here, but I want to thank all you wonderful people for the terrific advice.
This is great and I'm really looking fowrard to it. I'll probably scout the route the day before - makes sense and good practice. Thanks again!! DW

[DickW]

So, thanks to Paulo acting as our guide and insisting that we hit the museum trailhead at midnight, 6 of us made it up Skyline to the tram last weekend in good form - and 3 of us, Liz, Jim and I did the whole C2C, getting back to the tram at 5:00pm the next day. What a fantastic and exhilerating experience. The best! Now I want to go back in the dead of winter and do Skyline to the tram in daylight.

[zippetydude]

Thanks for the follow-up post. Glad you had a chance to do it and made it through successfully. While starting in the dark is necessary when it's hot, I think you'll enjoy doing it in the light of day even more. If it's possible for you to adjust your date for the winter ascent, be sure to post and ask about the snow conditions. From Flatrock to the tram it can become impassable when the snow is deep. Not a horrible thing, as you can simply walk back down and enjoy Skyline in reverse, but if you're wanting to make it straight through the snow can block your way entirely at times.

Anyway, Congrats!

z

[hawkbill666]

I have a humble 3 skylines under my belt, but years apart as I am one of those yearly October people

On the morning of my first one its 3am at the musuem and I am checking my GPS track and another hiker comes up to me and says to just take the "right" choice if the trail splits (I still dont know who this was, but thank you). So I then thought I would give that a try and use my GPS as a backup. It was slow going but I checked my GPS every time I turned right (and there were alot!) and for the most part it worked and my GPS only corrected me once or twice.
Second skyline same thing.
Between skyline 2-3 I left the batteries in my GPS and learned that "they" still have not fixed that leaky battery problem, so they ate my GPS.
So skyline 3 I did sans GPS, and just turned right. I had one problem that I struggled with a bit, for just a few minutes, but it was otherwise pretty easy.

But standing there halfway up in the dark with just the light of your headlamp looking at the mess of trails sometimes within feet of each other - trying to decide which way to turn can feel a bit intimidating. So a gps is a nice backup.

Scott