guest wrote:Hi xcnuck, (cool name!),
Don't know of any water fountains close by the Museum, (trailhead). There is a Starbucks that opens around 5 or 6am, close by, (The Rowen hotel may have it for purchase). Reaching Long Valley at 2am sounds odd, (sorry), as heat is now a concern, as you may know, and following the trail from the trees, (approx 7,200ft.) and up, can be challenging in the dark.
You should be ok finding the Ranger Sta, (75 yards from bottom of concrete walkway from tram), if you head West / NW from the top of Skyline. It's about a 1/4 mile of flat ground w/ well used trails to the ranger sta. There usually is a spigot outside the ranger building, (call to confirm), and restrooms may or may not be locked, (another source of water). It seems & tastes a bit funky, but potable.
The spigot at Round Valley CG jct., 9100ft. (1 mile before Wellman's Divide), may have water, (recommended to purify).
scott
thanks, Scott! I have considered the Starbucks, however this is an "FKT" type thing and I'm trying to preserve the "unsupported" aspect of it.
the reason I ask about the ranger station at Long Valley is that when I was there in October the rangers directed me to the restroom for filling up my bottles. I will give them a call to find out.
Ed wrote:
xcnuck,
Welcome to the discussion board. Puzzling questions, I certainly don't know the answers. Perhaps others do. Might help to know your overall plan. Are you Canadian, by the way?
Regarding the first question, I don't know whether there is a water source at the trailhead. Probably not. But I've never looked for one or thought about it, and I suspect others on this discussion board are in the same category. Because everybody brings to the trailhead all the water they expect to drink between there and the tram station. If you are not familiar with the area, downtown Palm Springs is only a few blocks away, but shuts down overnight, at the usual hours.
Regarding the second question, again I don't know the answer, some people on this discussion board may. If there is no water at the ranger station, I would think you would find some in the stream at this time of year, after hiking a little ways. Why would you be there at 2am? If temperature is a consideration, as it should be at this time of year, the low for the day is at sunrise, or slightly before. While starting well before sunrise is certainly advisable, to put it mildly, I am not sure hiking in the middle of the night buys you much, and following the trail could be a problem for a first-timer.
And I assume you are aware that the tram is currently open only Thursday through Monday.
Hi, Ed! Thank you! I am in fact originally from Canada (Montreal, QC) - I've been local to SoCal for a little over 5 years now (San Diego area). Yes, I agree 2am is a weird time to be at Long Valley ranger station. My route involves starting from Idyllwild at Deer Springs TH, over the summit of San Jacinto, down the Skyline trail and back the same way to finish in a pure out & back fashion. The goal is to start at 10pm on April 30th for the "out", and hopefully get to the base of the Skyline trail around 5 or 6am for the start of the "back" portion. Maybe I'll see some of you all out there!
Florian wrote:xcnuck wrote:I was looking for information regarding water sources at the base of the Skyline Trail around the art museum.
Hi xcnuck. There is a drinking fountain on east side of Belardo a couple hundred yards south of Alejo.
I just located it on Google streetview. Thank you Florian!