Five of us were participants in the Death Valley to Telescope Peak hike on September 29 and decided to try another classic base to summit hike. Cindy Outlaw lives in San Diego and has done the hike so many times that part of the hike is named after her (Outlaw trail).
Logistics:
We met at 5:30 AM on November 17 at the western end of Ramon Road and started hiking in the dark. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise from the trail. There were lots of other people hiking from or the Palm Springs to the tram station. In fact, we passed a group of more that 20 hikers from the Los Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, who were hiking to the tram station and had started at the Desert Museum (alternate trailhead).
The trail is an unending secession of upward-reaching switchbacks like the 97 switchbacks on Mt.Whitney. From the start we broke up into 2 groups. The first group made it to the Long Valley and the tram station between 5 and 5 1/2 hours and the second group made it in 6 hours (11:30). After an hour lunch in a nice warm tram station restaurant we headed towards the summit after stopping at the Long Valley Ranger Station to get a self issue wilderness permit. On the way up we took a couple of breaks then made it to the summit between 2:30 and 3:00 PM. Most of the day we had warm weather, however, it was about 48 degrees on the summit. We took a short break and then headed back to the tram station where we ended our hike between 4:45 and 5:30 PM just as it was getting dark. We had a beer to celebrate the successful day then we took the tram down in the dark, with a spectacular view of the glittering lights of Palm Springs, which was fun.
After a nice dinner we decided to get up at 1 AM and drive to Joshua Tree (about 40 miles from Palm Springs) to watch the Leonid meteor shower. It was spectacular. Meteors were falling every second. It was a great way to end a fun weekend
Thanks to Jeff for suggesting that we climb this classic peak this year. Below are Richard Vassar's GSP waypoints for future San Jacinto hikers.
All waypoints are UTM and NAD27 datum.
Name Zone Easting Northing Comment SJC01 11 S 541196 3741633 Ramon Rd. traihead SJC02 11 S 540870 3742793 saddle, junction with "Museum Trail" SJC03 11 S 540448 3742525 SJC04 11 S 540277 3742506 SJC05 11 S 539969 3742229 SJC06 11 S 539423 3741423 SJC07 11 S 538830 3741114 SJC08 11 S 538113 3741496 SJC09 11 S 537858 3741765 SJC10 11 S 537470 3741665 SJC11 11 S 537174 3741927 SJC12 11 S 536821 3741876 SJC13 11 S 536036 3742029 SJC14 11 S 535407 3741559 SJC15 11 S 535017 3741284 SJC16 11 S 534495 3741305 SJC17 11 S 533677 3741177 east end of Long Valley (near tram station) SJC18 11 S 533209 3741236 Long Valley Ranger Station SJC19 11 S 531178 3740232 SJC20 11 S 530222 3739744 SJC21 11 S 530129 3740755 SJC22 11 S 530208 3741489 SJC23 11 S 529788 3741166 SJCNTO 11 S 529747 3741460 summit of Mt. San Jacinto