Yesterday's Skyline

[Zé]

HEY !!!!! anybody wanna race ?!

did you mention the word "race"? that's a whippin!

fern has sub 3, you gonna try to beat him?

we should have a 'Trail Tax' to create funds for signs on trail, trail maintenance, etc... It would be proportional to miles x bodyweight x velocity. For you locals there will be a FasTrak option with meters when you cross Grubbs Notch. Maybe pay to put up an electric fence.

[bluerail]

well of course...all in due time..


isn't it a competition ?

[skunkboy]

Last weekend I took my wife and 11 year old son out on what I thought would be an enjoyable family outing, up to the picnic tables on the Museum trail. What a frigging fiasco it turned out to be. About a third of the way up, the main trail goes straight around a small ridge and disappears, and I took this route. However my wife and son, who were 30 seconds behind me, missed the main trail, and headed up one of the "shortcuts". It quickly became a "march or die" kind of experience for them. When I found them 10 minutes later, they had had enough, and just wanted to go back to the museum. There were six other people on that shortcut, who had also missed the main trail. What should be done? I don't know. Smarter minds than mine will have to figure that one out. What I do know is that the people that blow their noses and wipe their butts and then throw their tissues and toilet paper off to the side of the trail are a bigger threat to our wilderness than people who's brains are on fire and are giddy with the freedom that our mountain affords everyone. We won't mention the empty-headed numbskull dirtbags, who raid the emergency caches, and then toss the empty water bottles at their bases. What are these people thinking? That the frigging maid or the elves are going to clean up after them? Dantes 7th level of hell is too good for them.

Sincerely and with best regards,

Skunk

[Cy Kaicener]

Hi Cy. When are you going to be back out on Skyline?

I think bluerail is right in that the very beginning part of the trail probably isn't even skyline regulars; it looked exactly like it does now back when I first did it around 7 or 8 years ago. Back then, I would only see a couple of people on the trail most weekends, not nearly enough to create the myriad trails up to the picnic tables.

z

Stan - I will be back when my carpool group goes after the snow has mostly melted, and my back improves In the meantime I have lots to keep me busy in the San Bernadino foothills above Highland.

Newbies - 90 percent of the time take the right hand fork (except just before Coffman's Crag)

[Ed]

[...but zealots will always be .....]

I don't think describing people who disagree with you on the shortcut issue as zealots is fair or helpful. There are some things you blow up about on this discussion board. While few people hike the trail as much as you, there are people who appear to have hiked it longer, and I think their opinions deserve some respect.

As for the multiplicity of routes up to the picnic tables, I am not sure who is 'responsible', but I would not rule out Skyline hikers: they are the most likely to do this section in the dark, in a hurry and fit enough to take shortcuts.

[Perry]

I think most of us would agree that erosion is bad, and nobody wants the trail to get shut down. Since I haven't been on the trail since 2009, I don't know exactly what it looks like today, just heard it's gone "downhill" in general. Is there extreme rutting?

[HikerBlatt]

I'm an old guy who has been hiking the Skyline for 40 years, though much less now than in the past. I still think the trail is one of the best reasons to live in the Coachella Valley, but I can't help but mourn the loss of what it was not all that long ago compared to what it is today. It's also easy to understand why the younger, stronger, enthusiastic trail blazers don't miss what they never knew.

[KathyW]

I think most of us would agree that erosion is bad, and nobody wants the trail to get shut down. Since I haven't been on the trail since 2009, I don't know exactly what it looks like today, just heard it's gone "downhill" in general. Is there extreme rutting?

There are a lot more trails now and you can't really tell which ones are shortcuts and which ones are not. The conditions are the worst at the lower elevations.

Why are conditions on the Skyline trail generally worse than other heavily used trails? Has the posting of hiking times on public forums fueled some of this? Does the competitive nature of people make the desire to get up the trail fast more important than preserving an urban wilderness area?

Maybe shutting it down for a while or setting up a quota/permit system is a good idea? I didn't used to think so, but after my last hike up the trail I finally understood why people complain about the shortcuts.

[bluerail]

Sorry Ed, youre right.


Someone also has painted over tombstone rock....that was a neat piece of trail history there....bummer.


I'll try not to blow up next time someone throws 36 one liter bottles all over the trail....I was kind of amazed to find out how many people walked right by them the morning I picked them up, and no one even grabbed one. I think Florian was the only person to offer picking any up. they all fit in my pack though, I was amazed.

[Ed]

We all agree on the trash, bluerail, and thanks for picking it up. My last time up my loot was a one-gallon grape juice bottle, plus assorted kleenexes, bottle caps, and energy-something wrappers.