Jo pond trail

[bluerail]

Here are photos of the Jo Pond trail http://bluerail.smugmug.com/gallery/726 ... 6029_chj9S

[halhiker]

Nice pictures! I guess that crappy rocky section is a good testament on why hiking uphill is really the way to go. My knees couldn't take the beating of going down miles of that. I'm sure your feet were happy when you were done.

[bluerail]

my quads have been sore for two days now. I've come down skyline and never felt a thing. Jo Pond is something else. Gotta go up it and soon. would not want to go up that trail with any kinda heat.no shade and only up hill. sunday after I finished it, I thought never again. But of course, now I'm ready and planning.

[KathyW]

Steve: Thanks for sharing your pictures. Those Palms in the canyon are beautiful. I'm surprised at how much snow you encountered down below Cedar Springs. If your legs are sore, it must have been pretty steep. I think I'd like to do it the other way when I eventually do the hike - starting from Palm Springs, but that 8 am starting time makes it tough.

Kathy

[bluerail]

Kathy, yep the 8 start time is it bit of a bummer. I actually worried that you might not have enough light to make it all the way to Morris rd. but from Cedar Springs to the road would be easy with a light. You should be able to make into CS with enough light.
PLMK if you are thinking about doing it.

[climbrx]

Hi all! I hiked the Indian Canyons west fork to Andreas with a little side trip to the seven sisters this saturday it was beautiful. Lots of water flow. At the split where the trail heads up the mountian to cedar creek you could see snow at the higher elevations. Amazing all the palms in those canyons.

[Cy Kaicener]

Five of our Forum hikers were at the Indian Canyon gates at 8.00 am this morning to do the Joe Pond trail. - Ellen, Karen, Bluerail, Tina and Mark.
They are all speedy hikers, so I did not join them, and I dont have snow shoes. Cant wait to read the trip report.

[KathyW]

Cy: Those speedy hikers should bring back a great report. If you ever want to head up there with a not so speedy hiker, let me know because I fit that bill and I'd like to do the hike sometime too.

Kathy

[Cy Kaicener]

That sounds great Kathy - the sooner the better before it gets too hot. Daylight Savings time starts next Sunday I think which would be like starting an hour earlier. I can go anytime except Sundays.
We would need a car shuttle at the other end and someone who knows the way. At the moment I am recovering from a sore back from hiking six days a week, so I should be okay with a few days rest.

[Marknhj]

As Cy reports, five of us headed up Jo Pond yesterday. It was a beautiful morning. Steve, and his wife Cathryn, arose early and took a truck up to the trail head on Morris Ranch Road. I met Ellen, Karin and Tina at the Museum and we headed to the Indian Canyons in a convoy. We met Steve on S. Palm Canyon at the end of the South Lykken Trail and left the four cars parked on the street, going into Indian Canyons in his van. We didn't want to leave every car at the Trading Post in case we didn't make it back by 5pm. At the gate it was a pleasant surprise to run into Cy! This was Ellen and Tina's first experience of desert hiking on anything but Skyline. Tina quickly discovered the trail head retail opportunity and had to be extracted for group photo's! We headed down the ramp, found the West Fork trail and started up. None of us noted the temperature but I'm guessing it was in the mid-to-high 60's when we started. Steve's wife joined us for the first hour before turning around shortly after we had past the West Fork/Jo Pond Trail junction.

After an initial steep-ish climb out of Palm Canyon, which took about thirty minutes, the trail flattens out to a steady uphill trek for about three miles. It was already getting hot. Then we started heading up. And up and up. As Steve previously reported the trail is quite rocky, but in good condition. It was quite hard work and we were getting hotter; I was sweating profusely and was glad I'd brought 4L of water/gatorade. At around 5000' we found some small patches of snow and stopped to cool ourselves with it. We then started running into more snow, but none was a problem. The views along this section are truly magnificent and we took a 15 minute lunch break at 5500'. Shortly after heading up again we emerged on a ridge at about 6000', the views up here were simply spectacular and it was nice to have completed the majority of the ascent.

Then we ran into snow. Quite a bit of it! But none that proved particularly problematic to negotiate without snowshoes. There was no sign of the trail but from his hike two weeks ago Steve knew the direction we had to head towards. Of course we'd gone from being very hot to now having wet feet with occasional knee deep post holing, and we were fairly tired. Steve was therefore questioned quite pointedly if he actually knew where the errr, heck, we were! But he did and we eventually found Cedar Spring camp site. After getting through that section we heard voices and ran into a large Sierra Club group packing to camp. Thirty minutes later, after negotiating more snow, we found PCT, stopped for another break and were relieved we'd at last finished going uphill. I would not recommend anyone going up into the snow in this area without someone who knows the route. It's impossible to find the trail in the snow if you don't know which direction to head towards.

It was then about a 2 mile walk down to the truck, where Steve had a much welcomed cooler filled with beer and gatorade. It was 3.40pm when we finished, so we'd spent about 7.5 hours on the trail. It was a lovely day with significant contrasts in conditions experienced, this really is a great trail. We got back to Palm Springs at 5.15pm so were glad we'd left our cars on the street (we could have made it back by 5pm if we hadn't taken breaks and hadn't had to look for the trail in the snow - but be careful if you do leave cars there, it's a 45 mile drive back and the 111 is always busy on weekend afternoons). Many thanks to Steve and Cathryn for the car shuttle....

(btw - Ellen and Steve are snowshoeing today!)