I was Baltimore for five days for a meeting and hadn't hiked for 10 days. We left a bit before six as it was warm and humid. Fortunately, we had cloud cover nearly the enitre time. At 4 K, it started to "spritz," which felt really good going up to 5 K and along the Never Ending Ridge. Had lunch at St. Florian's cache and packed out two empty pint bottles. There's another empty 1/2 gallon container to pick up next time. No water at cache.
The views of the Coachella Valley/Salton Sea on the climb out of Flatrock were spectacular -- the best views I've had on Skyline in quite a while. The wind started howling at the beginning of the traverse (Thank you Jesus rocks) but subsided. I couldn't believe the snow melt in just two weeks -- there was an actual dirt trail
Popped out at Grubbs notch a bit under 6 hours, scrambled up the rocks and enjoyed suitable bevarages before having a fabulous lunch at Las Casuelas. (I also haven't had Mexican food in 10 days).
These conditions were before the snow fell last night.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
