Ferris,
My daughter-in-law and I were about 6 hours ahead of you during your hike on Saturday; not because we were faster but rather because we started earlier
We drove to the museum right after work on Friday and began our hike around 8:00 PM Friday evening. It was in the upper 90's as the sun was going down; not good.
In spite of the heat, our hike started really well. We were above 4,000 feet in a couple of hours and feeling like this whole thing wasn't going to be that big of a deal. That all changed around 11:00 or so as, for wahtever reason, our minds totally disengaged from our hike.
We were both overwhelmed with a desire to just go to sleep. I've never had this feeling before during any of my hikes. We fought it for a few hours by coming up with word games to try to keep our minds engaged in what we were doing. This helped but it didn't eliminate the problem.
Finally we just gave in to all of this and, when we reached Flat Rock with the lights of palm Springs beautifully spread out below us, we turned off our head lamps, laid down on our back packs and slept for a while. When we woke up, we finished the hike to the tram. Once there, we had absolutely no interest at all in continuing to the peak. Physically, we were fine. Mentally, we were wasted.
In retrospect, we have decided to never start a hike again without at least a few hours of sleep. We thought that the adrenaline and effort of the hike would push our bodies through their normal sleep patterns but that turned out to not be the case.
For those who have yet to try this trail, it is everything that its reputation says it is. Although there are some flatter miles in the middle portion, it starts with a solid climb for the first few miles and the final 2.5 miles above Flat Rock are as relentless as any trail that I've been on. It's not the Iron Mountain ridge, but then, that's really not a trail. It's also important to note that this final climb is after you have already climbed around 6,000 feet over 8.5 miles. This requires a solid effort that can only be accomplished if you are in good condition.
Finally, this isn't the time of year to be doing this trail. We plan on going back in late October, starting at a more reasonable time of 3:00 AM or so and going all the way to the summit. We are looking forward to it!