We hit the museum trail at exactly 4:14 am on Saturday. Our loadout was identical to last year, except I had a couple of things to try counter the heat, such as an athletic cooling towel and some ridiculously cheap spray mister.
But the hike went well as the feared heat never showed with lower temperatures and there was a cool breeze. Somewhere around 4500 feet or so I spotted what appeared to be Ellen leading a skyline speed train of about 6 hikers. I got to meet her briefly as she whizzed past. I tried to keep pace with them to see if their speed would rub off but my heart rate monitor strenuously objected to my behavior so I had to downshift. I had really hoped I would meet somebody from the forum on this trip so that was great. (Nice meeting you Ellen!)
Flatrock came into view surprisingly quick and my hiking partner and I kept talking about how different the shadows looked the entire time, suspecting we were way ahead of our prior pace but not having a real reference.
After Flatrock I really started having fun as I knew I was not going to melt this trip and I somehow was getting into the steep grade. We also had been leap frogging with another two hikers since 5000 feet and this continued almost all the way to the tram. So there was some competitive encouragement going on.
Again, surprisingly fast we were standing next to Coffmans and I had to just stand in awe of it for a bit. We made our prearranged text messages to family members as we lose coverage on the top and headed up.
We hit long valley at 12:15. A total time of 8 hours ! This compared to last years 11 hrs, 22 mins. ( Its amazing how much faster your time is when you don’t spend 45 mins looking for two geocaches you cant find
)
Without haste we had to convert our 3 hour savings into a hike to the summit so we were off. To be honest the first three miles is pretty blah for me, since it seems so much like the northwest (never ending switchbacks through the woods). But Wellmans came up quickly and this is where I really start enjoying it again. But before the first major near 180 degree switchback we were dragging. It was pretty funny as two hikers on the way down from the summit commented, “You guys are doing C2C aren’t you, I feel your pain”, so it was that obvious. So we resorted to a rare backup plan on my part, caffeine gel. Whoa, hey, that did the trick.
The summit was like something out of a Dr Suess book. As many people told us who we passed on the way up, the trees were frozen on the top third. And the icicles were sticking out horizontal, at 90 degrees!. It was obvious that freezing rain and a fierce wind had combined to make this amazing spectacle. Oversized pinecones were covered in over an inch of clear ice, making it look like Christmas decorations, but again, only on the top 3rd. Soon we saw the emergency shelter and a foreboding, ice covered boulder field to the top. Everyone is right, including John Muir that called the view amazing. I could see a city past the Salton sea….really felt like I could see 100 miles. Time on the summit, 5pm.
As expected, we would bookend our hike with two hours of headlamps on the way down. And as with last year we were the final two hikers coming down the trail. One final display of mountain power was an explosion of high winds at Wellmans. Tram arrive tram 7:50pm, pizza time !
Amazing, exhausting, rewarding and highly recommended, but hesitant if I will do it again. I have a lifetime appointment with skyline though as there will be lots of those hikes in my future.
I carried a pedometer that I have learned is very accurate, 66,721 steps. Quite a few for an office slug like me.
Thanks to everyone on this forum for your encouragement and advice. Hope to see you on skyline sometime!
Scott
sure did.
It was great to meet you. In addition to the challenge of Skyline, I enjoy meeting other Skyliners, especially people from this board.
