Skyline: Bottom trail renewed

[DancesWithTheMountains]

Hi Everyone,
Its been awhile. I'm waiting for the snow to melt a little more before I go all the way. Been going to 5,000 and back. For those of you who haven't been on Skyline in awhile
there have been some great changes to the bottom part. I believe Andy Hollinger and a group of volunteers have done an amazing job of fixing up the beginning of the trial to
the benches. They built walls and filled in all those ridiculous short cuts that were eroding the trail. They also put up some posts with arrows directing hikers on the trail. I can't thank them enough for what they have done. Its very sad that some idiots took huge globs of grounded up chalk and just threw it all over the bottom half of the trail and of course being the idiots that they are, they went off the trail. If any of you see these idiots, please get ahold of that bag of chalk and stuff it in their mouths!!! As the Queen of
Skyline, you have my permission to do so!!! LOL. I have also seen this chalk on Deer Springs Trail in Idlywild. What's with that??? Does anyone know who the jerks are???
I'm still working on the upper part of the trail to also block off some of the shot cuts that are eroding the trail. Hikers still kick my stones out of the way, but I keep piling
them on. Someone will pay attention.
Be safe everyone and don't forget that the mountain will be there so don't rush up to get caught in that snow and ice. Its better to be safe.
Happy Trails to all
Doreen

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for posting Doreen. I miss those days we hiked together. Here is a post from Facebook

David H Stewart
2 mins ·
At around 5:30 yesterday morning with Doreen and James Hall (my usual hiking buddies on the Skyline), we went up to 4500 ft from the Museum/Skyline trail. Doreen is a very well known hiker in the Coachella Valley as she has hiked the complete Skyline Trail over 300 times! She's a sweet gal, too.
It is always a good workout and the flowers were in full bloom, too. We did see plenty of hikers (I knew some of them) on the trail and many of them were planning to go all the way to the Tram. I received a report from one of the hikers I knew and said that the last 2000 ft has some snow and ice around but with microspikes and poles, it is doable. The trail is mostly exposed and can be followed to the Tram. In this case, I'm likely to go all the way in a few weeks, before the usual high temperatures resumes. Anyone willing to join me on this very challenging, 8-9 hour hike?

https://www.facebook.com/cyril.kaicener -- log in to access

[DancesWithTheMountains]

Hi Cy
Yes indeed. Those were great days on SKyline. Probably the happiest times of my hiking life. Maybe you can
try one with me soon. We can take our time and go slow and make a full day of it. Let me know.
Doreen

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for the invitation Doreen. I would have to be rescued before I reached half way. The last time I hiked it was six years ago when I was 72. My back is now in bad shape and I can only manage two hours of hiking per day. I THINK i can still make up the road to the lower tram station.

How Trump got fired by a California Casino -- http://www.desertsun.com/longform/news/ ... /81860676/

[neverwashasbeen]

Hi Doreen,

I also was confused about the chalk along the trail. The other day I noticed that it is also on the portion of the Lykken up to the junction with the Museum/Skyline trail. After thinking long and hard I realized that the person/s that put it there are so fast that their body is faster than their brain can think and so it is a valuable navagation tool for them. Imagining how fast they must be going is overwhelming to me. Perhaps some of the more scientific minds on the board can calculate how fast that must be.