I did C2C last Saturday, 10/20 for the first time. I thought I'd share my trip notes:
- I did the hike solo but like everyone says, you really shouldn't unless you really know what you're doing. It is possible to lose the trail at times and many stretches of the lower trail are very remote with a lot of exposure to hostile desert conditions. There aren't a lot of places here that you can safely wait out to be rescued, which makes not being rescued in the first place even that more important.
- I scheduled the hike specifically for October for the best odds of success.
- I had the route programmed into a GPS with a topo map and compass for backup. There were about 3 or 4 times in the lower part of the trail that I was unsure and checked the GPS so I wouldn't waste time back-tracking a wrong turn.
- Times: 6.5 hrs to Long Valley, 0.5 rest, 3.5 hrs to summit, 2.5 hrs to descend, 13 hrs total.
- Probably the hardest physical thing I've ever done. Extremely exhausting, but not impossible. I heard there were over 35 people on the trail that day and as far as I know, everyone made it to at least Long Valley.
- The beginning (Art Museum) and end points (Lower Tram Station) of the hike are 6 miles apart. Some people get a taxi or hitchhike after they finish the hike. I left a bike at the Lower Tram Station and parked my car at the museum. I thought about doing it the other way around because I heard cars were be broken into at the museum but decided to do it this way in case I had to bail out and go back down. If I did have to bail out, at least I would be going back to my car instead of to my bike which I would then have to ride 6 miles uphill to get to my car!
- Wanted to start at 5:30a-6:00a but ended up late at 6:50a. This is usually very bad. I do not recommend starting this late but I have a decent pace and I knew I could probably out climb the heat. It got warm quickly, though. By 8:00am I think it was 90°. Still 90° at 3000'. Maybe something was wrong with my thermometer? Didn't cool off significantly until about 6000-7000'. Dry Santa Ana's too.
- Trail is steep for the first mile, then sort of flat with some down in the middle. The last 2000 ft to the tram is quite steep. At the very end before you top out at Long Valley, the gain is like 700 ft over 0.3 miles. What is that, 44% grade? It was insane--I was going straight up the side of the mountain and by this time I was already dead tired. The final hike from Long Valley to the summit is gradual but excruciatingly long. It was almost as long as the Marion Mountain trail I normally do but only half the elevation gain.
- Packed 3L of water and a back-up water bottle. The 3L emptied at about the 11th hour of hiking (which was about 30 minutes after I descended from the summit). Did not drink the back-up water. This amount of water was safe for me based on numerous previous long distance hikes. Your results may vary.
- I was extremely hungry for most of the day. I underestimated the amount of calories I needed for this hike. I brought a lunch and snacks but was still starving. I didn't have this problem on Whitney, but I carbo-loaded the night before a lot better that time.
- Winds at the upper elevations and the summit were really strong. Only stayed up top for about 10 minutes.
- After summiting and going back to Long Valley, you have to climb another 100' or so on a concrete sidewalk to get to the upper tram station. This was awful.
- They have a couple of places to eat at the upper tram station. I didn't try any of them though.
- The 6 mile bike ride back to the museum was all downhill and a great thrill to end an awesome day.
