San Jacinto Hike

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Second last day of vacation. Sad to see it end. It has cooled off, in the 80s. Perfect day for a hike.

We went up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway for the hike. It is about 30 degrees cooler up there, so probably not the perfect day for a hike. We should have gone up when it was 100 so it wouldn’t have been so chilly. We wore jeans and fleece. Not enjoyable to put jeans on after 2 weeks of summer clothes.

The ride up the Tram is fantastic, once you get used to the feeling of motion sickness. Ed has no trouble with it. We went up once before about 4 years ago, so I was better this time. Here’s my best pic from the ride.

We were fully prepared hikers this time! 4 bottles of water, granola bars, toilet paper (yeah, that’s not my addition to the packsac), more clothes, camera, money. And we actually brought it along this time.

It is cold and windy at the top. We decide that we should try the Round Valley 4 mile loop trail, and go to check in at the ranger station. The ranger tells us that the trail is still snow covered! That we aren’t prepared for, and we certainly didn’t travel all this way to walk around on snow. That we can do at home. So we leave there and head to the Dessert View Trail. It was good but a bit short, so we decided to go back to Round Valley and see how far we could go. Ran into snow about half a mile in. By the time we got back to the station we had had enough. A few hours of climbing hills is enough for these legs. Plus the walk back into the tram station is a killer – straight uphill.

The real trail to do is the hike to San Jacinto Peak. Which Ed now thinks that we can do with the proper equipment. The hike is difficult and about 12 miles round trip. He said that next time we are doing that hike. It will have to be in the summer as the snow doesn’t seem to melt until July. I suggested that we could do that hike if we practiced other hikes at home. Ed said a trip to Mountain Equipment Coop and a few thousand dollars in gear and we will be ready.

A statement he would probably reassess after we got home. Made a few stops on the way back, including Five Guys Burgers for lunch. It was about 4 pm by the time we got home. Which was about an hour after our legs stopped working. It all seems good, you are moving and standing and you can feel it but it’s not that bad. Then we try to get out of the car after the half hour drive. Not a pretty sight. Fortunately most of those problems are fixed by a nap and a hot tub.

The real ‘not a pretty sight’ was a couple at the tram. She is about 24, he is about 45. And he thinks he is in an Abercrombie commercial. I don’t even have to say how wrong the v-neck is do I? And the tie-die shorts?

The other ‘not a pretty sight’ was at Five Guys. A group of (to be kind) middle aged, slightly chubby women in sundresses with all the tattoos showing. One of my favourite, the angel wings. The only good thing is that seeing that display, young children should be scared to get a tattoo.

My final fashion advice for today: men should not, ever, wear capris. Capris are for women only. No exceptions.

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