Sat May 30 -- who's on?

[bluerail]

The tram bar, silly.

[Florian]

It's almost cool in Palm Springs 80° at 7pm Friday evening due to some big thunderheads. But no rain yet.

-Florian

[Florian]

The tram bar silly.

Oh, duh. Thanks.

-Florian

[zippetydude]

please don't take out any socio-automotive angst on her legs.

Sweet. I see both you and Kathryn have natural talent with writing. It runs in the family, I guess. Wait a minute...that would be genetic...Steve, are you two cousins? (That's not taboo with me, I'm from the south!)

z

[halhiker]

Can't do Saturday because I have kids but I'm trying to do Wednesday if I can get someone to bring my 10 YO to school. Probably (ugh) 5:30. That's early for me.

[bluerail]

actually Zip, she's my second cousins half-sister.

I divorced my cousin Pearl when I was seventeen, she was a freak, Thank goodness we only had that one kid.

see ya on the trail in a little bit.

Hal, you can lock them in the closet with McDonalds and take off hiking. It's completely ok as long as your not doing something sleezy like going to the bar or hanging out with your crew smokin crack.

wheres that new moderator ?

[Cy Kaicener]

Yesterday at Long Valley we had a meeting of Skyline Addicts (not so) Annonymous at the top of the Skyline trail. Guess who was the first one up. It was Walt in the fantastic time of 5 hours and 15 minutes. Ellen, Karyn, Zippydude, Kathryn, Steve, Maria and Mark followed fairly soon afterwards.
Zippedychick (Tina) must have got a late start.

[Ellen]

Howdy All

Kathryn, Karin, Maria and I started about 3:15. For the first hour, I was nauseated, which I blamed on the heat and humidity. On the other hand, Walt may have the right idea about letting the gut dictate the starting time when one gets a bit older He passed us a bit above the picnic tables and looked fabulous -- he was booking. The first clue as to Walt's identify was when I heard a man ask if he was going the in right direction for the waffle house.

We reached 4300 ft just as the sun was rising. The bugs (especially mosquitos). were out in force at Flat Rock. It seems they preferred Kathryn to me this time -- on our last Skyline, I sustained multiple bites. By the time we reached Grubbs notch, I'd had enough. I was able to convince pretty much everyone to abandon the summit and head to the tram bar. Just call me the San Jacinto Beer Siren You know you've been to the same watering hole way too often when the bartender not only knows your name but starts drawing your beer This was the second time that most of people around the bar had hiked Skyline. I want to formally thank Walt for graciously supplying the anesthetic beverages.

We completed the hike with Coleman's ritual lunch at Las Consuelas. Walt regaled us with wonderful stories about his hiking adventures in Scottland and Japan. Following lunch, I headed over to the Riveria Resort, bathed, and took a long nap. I haven't been to the Riveria since the rennovation --it's wonderful!

Today I completed my stay at Palm Springs by lecturing at a sports medicine conference. During my talk, I observed that two years ago I had fallen into cacti on the way up Skyline (earning the dubious name of "cactus ass") and that one year ago I went up Skyline with Karin for my first hike following the hiking misadventure. This was my third year hiking Skyline (prior to this conference) and there were no complications. San Jacinto has both tested me and redemed me -- I said a silent prayer of thanks to the mountain when I arrived at Grubbs notch.

MIles of smiles,
Ellen

[zippetydude]

Hi All!

I doesn't get much better than this folks! A cooler than expected day on Skyline (unless you left too early!), fun friends to hike with, a great time at the Upper Tram Station, and a complimentary (Thanks Jean!) ride back to the museum.

I had to miss the Las Casuelas lunch - but my little 7 year old had asked me if we could have a "Special Day" together the night before. When I got home, I found she had gotten up at 6:30 a.m and had been waiting for me all morning. How sweet. Nobody else is so excited about spending time with me that they get up at 6:30 in the morning just to make sure they're ready! She and I got to explore Mill Creek, make clover bracelets, bounce on the trampoline, eat at Del Taco, and watch True Lies. A wonderful day by any measure.

bluerail: I always have fun hiking (and searching for shortcuts) with you. I'm looking for a chance to hit the Snow Creek trail with you soon.

Ellen: Thanks, Sirenwoman, for luring us all to your secret abode (the bar)! I always enjoy a bad influence...

Karin: It is so much more fun to arrive at the notch when your bright, sparkling smile is there to greet me! Keep an eye on that Ellen character for me if you will...

Walt: Arrgh! I missed tales of Japan and Scotland!? We may need to set up a group overnight camping trip at Barton Flats or something like that so we can sit up all night by a campfire telling stories, drinking beer, and eating Q!

Kathryn: A question: how can you eat bacon after a grueling hike?! Bacon! You're my hero.

Cy: Yes! You were back on the trail! Good to see you, I hope things keep improving real well.

Maria: Siempre me gusta hablar contigo. Talvez me puedes ensenar unos otros dichos como la semana pasada. La proxima vez que tengamos la oportunidad de subir Skyline, quizas te puedo mostrar un camino corto. iSe que te gustan muchisimo!

Jean: Skyline will be much more fun if you're on the trail with us . . . a few minutes ahead of Walt! Ellen was telling me something about efficient movement on the trail (we got distracted, so I never heard the full version) but Walt said you've got gymnastics training...you'll be a natural! I'll be looking for you girl!

Tina: What happened to you? I was hoping you'd pop into the bar to say hi and take a short break before hitting the peak (or perhaps succumbing to Ellen's bad influence and staying to laugh and talk, saving the peak for another day). If you did the full C2C, congrats!

z

[Marknhj]

Howdy All
Kathryn, Karin, Maria and I started about 3:15. For the first hour, I was nauseated, which I blamed on the heat and humidity.

Ellen - I knew I was going to struggle with the humidity before I reached 2000' and felt drained the whole way up. How come no one told me the desert could be humid before I moved here? I believed all that dry heat stuff!

Frankly, by the time I got to the top of Skyline I was relieved the group conscience concluded that enough was enough for the day. However, it was all made worthwhile by zip showing us the shortcut up the rocks from the Notch to the Tram Station - no more concrete walkway. Yes!

Here's a question for you beer drinkers. Which one of you is going to be responsible for bluerail's beer drinking development? Although I'm now a Pepsi drinker, I do know that bud light simply cannot be classified as real beer!

Walt, I can't believe you did it so fast in that heat and humidity. Awesome. Lugging 10L up on training hikes is obviously the way to go!

Kathryn, my arteries have been inquiring about the sudden surge in bacon consumption during the last four months. In that time I've eaten more than in the past five years