San Jacinto Mountain (mis)Adventure

In October 2019, I decided to hike with two of my friends the "cactus to clouds" hike in Palm Springs, California, which my friend called the most difficult hike he knew of. I was not convinced. I had climbed many mountains and felt a little cocky. In order to climb this mountain, which is called Mount San Jacinto, we flew from San Francisco to LA, rented a car, drove to Palm Springs starting at about 10 p.m. and reaching about midnight. We started the hike behind the library at about 1 AM.

The hike was so demanding that in an hour I was ready to give up, but I persevered. It was great that the steep hike was invisible at night making it a little bearable. The hike continued through the day and I finally summitted San Jacinto at 10,800 feet at 5 PM in 16 hours, I had climbed this grueling hike, and my friend had already reached the summit two hours before me. I was humbled and, on the way back to the tram station, which was six miles away, I was totally beat.

Five years later, I wanted to do the hike again. I was worried if I could do it, and I asked a friend to go with. We decided to do this hike, and to make it easy on ourselves, we divided the hike into two components. The first one would be to walk from the sea level to 8500 feet and take the tram back down, and the second would be to take the tram up to 8500 feet and walk up to the summit and down to the tramway, making it a 12 mile and about 3,000 feet climb hike.

Finally, the day of the first hike arrived, and we woke up at 3AM and drove to the trail head. However, we discovered that the trail was closed due to high winds. It was very disappointing, and we did a six-mile canon hike nearby just because we were out in the wilderness.

A few days after this, on November 6th, which was a fateful day for politics in the United States, we decided to do the second hike as planned. the aerial tram opens at 10 AM.

We drove to the tram station by 9:45AM and found that the tickets were available for 10:15AM tram and cost about $32.95. At 10:15AM promptly we got into the tram and in 10 minutes we were at the 8,500 feet elevation which has a very beautiful café, a ranger station and camping areas.

We started the hike and discovered that we needed to get a wilderness permit at a ranger station a quarter mile away.

We filled the form, the permit was quickly received, and it did not cost anything. The two of us and two other hikers started the climb and were enjoying the wilderness. The weather was excellent. It was a little cool and 28° Fahrenheit. At the start, the breeze made the hands very cold. The sunshine was beautiful. The trees were awesome, and we continued the hike for many hours.

My friend hung back, I had been walking alone and the two other hikers walking behind me overtook me. I made a wrong turn but seeing the two hikers in the distance, I could easily course correct. I heard a little rustling behind and found that there was somebody walking really fast, trying to overtake me. It was a tall man wearing shorts and he seemed very fit.

The tall man walked briskly, and within minutes he was gone, and I continued trudging along with the two other hikers in my sight.

Soon I came to a fork in the road with a mile marker indicating 3.7 miles left to the summit, and it still was really beautiful weather, although cold and windy. At 38° Fahrenheit temperature. I continued walking and could see that the tree line was ending. Generally, it ends at 10 thousand feet. I could hear the roaring wind everywhere. It was a beautiful brisk day, a person who had just summitted was walking downhill. He seemed elderly and in great spirit. He said to me that this is one of the best days to hike, and the weather couldn't be better. I agreed with him and continued my march forward. By now, I had eaten two small apples and two Rx energy bars, which were really delicious.

My hands were getting numb because of the cold and I decided to put on the thin gloves that I was carrying with me. The treeline was ending, and I was surrounded by beautiful views of mountains and the Palm Springs area which I could see for very long distances.

The local mountain peaks were visible, and I took some pictures of them. The tops of pine trees dotting the area could be seen.

I was at 10,460 feet. I could see the tops of local mountains. The trees were almost thinning out. there was brush with a very narrow path between them that I was using to climb. The person who had briskly overtaken me earlier, seemed to have summitted and had turned back to the point I was at. I caught up to the two young people who had started the hike at the beginning with me.

I discovered that one hiker was 24 and another was in his 40s. Their pace had quickened, and I had to slow down. They went by me very fast, and soon disappeared. I was listening to the book by Noah Yuval Hariri. the new one named Nexus, and it was fantastic as it reflected the political as well as the historical situation we are in currently.

I came to a fork in the road and there was a marker indicating that I was 0.3 miles from the peak and my watch showed I was at 10,620 feet elevation, which meant that almost 300 feet more climb remained to reach the summit.

I was getting slower and winded at every step, but it wasn't that bad. The wind was moderate, and I could almost see the summit when I came to a cabin, which was at the fork in the road again.

The cabin was made of rocks and had a beautiful wooden roof, and it was on a cliff which overlooked the mountains and the valley below. It was a very beautiful sight. I continued further knowing that the summit was very, very close.

The rocky path to the summit was easy to discern in the daylight.

Finally, after 3 hours and 8 minutes of walking, I was at the summit, at 10,834 feet. The last 100 feet required climbing up huge boulders. The difficulty made for a fantastic summit experience because I felt like I had earned it.

At the summit I saw the two people who were ahead of me, they were eating some food, taking pictures. They were kind to me as they offered me some jerky, doritos and chips. I decided to wait for my friend while these two people started descending.

It got very windy, and I had no idea if my friend was going to summit anytime soon. The ranger had told us to turn back by 2pm regardless of summiting. I started walking down, discovered there was cell signal, and my friend had texted that he had turned back a few minutes ago, just a mile shy of the summit.

A USGS marker showed the summit's official location.

I texted my friend that I was walking back towards him and enjoyed the downhill walk crossing giant boulders and trying to discover the way back. The path to walk was not visible at all.

I was hoping to meet the trail after the boulders were finished and sure enough, I met a trail. I continued on it.

Soon I came to a campground that I had not passed on my way up.

Then I saw the outhouse that the Ranger had told us about and shown its location on a paper map, which my friend was carrying, and I had neglected to take a picture of it.

I came to a spot with huge boulders and had descended a lot. I actually did not know where I was and the correct route to the tram station. I was lost.

It was past 3pm and the sunlight would be available for another two hours. I had to find my way fast. The cell signal was low and spotty.

The trail kept descending, and I was in no mood to retrace my steps, mainly because it would require a climb and I was unsure if a climb would lead me to the right path. I was mildly panicking.

The maps were not loading, and the phone battery was rapidly depleting beyond 25%. I shut down all apps and tried to load the apple maps for the surrounding 10 square miles by stopping at one spot where there was consistent 1 bar signal. It seemed like 5 miles away was a highway number 243 and a resort as well. It was hard to know which destination to walk towards. There was no indication what altitude these places were at, because I was nearly at 10,000 feet.

The sun would be going down soon and the thick forest would turn dark, cold, more windy making it a life-threatening situation unless I acted fast. My friend's phone seemed to be off and he did not get my texts as well. I sent my plight in a text message to my other hiking friends and gave them my friend's number to reach out to periodically.

Again, I came to a spot that I had not visited before in the trip.

The google map worked suddenly and I was able to get the walking route to the tram station.

The path was 8 miles long with almost 2000 feet climb back to the summit, followed by the full descent. A 3.5-hour walk starting at 4:10pm would mean 7:40PM arrival at the tram station. The last tram left at 9pm. The problem was that my phone had 6% battery and walking without light in the wilderness was going to be super challenging and I was unsure how I would navigate once the battery was completely out, which could be in a few minutes.

The six percent charge lasted for a while and I could see the beautiful sunset.

A few minutes later the whole path was completely dark. It was hard to distinguish the trail from the wilderness.

The city and area of Palm Springs looked beautiful in the distance. I was longing to get back there but was lost in the forest.

Luckily, I found a small pen in my backpack which had a LED light on one end. It was a lifesaver. I had memorized the names of the waypoints on the trail and was fervently hoping that those waypoints would show up as expected and that I did not get lost any more than I already was.

This hike was supposed to be easy, I was supposed to descend in 2 hours and be at the tram station by 3:30pm. I had therefore not carried my power-bank, now the dead iPhone battery meant I had no navigation.

The wind numbed my hands. I stumbled on the rocks, tree roots and righted myself because causing any injuries.

The apple watch was handy because I could see in it that the elevation was dropping consistently as I walked.

I was the only person hiking the trail in this huge wilderness since about 2pm, as I did not come across anyone after summiting.

At long last, at 8:42pm I was at the tram station and my friend was eagerly awaiting my return. I caught the last tram and in 8 minutes we were down by our parked car.

I had been noting the elevation every 15 minutes in the hike and was able to see my elevation journey once back in the civilization. The chart shows that I had done the hike twice, and the second time I had the fear of survival and freezing at 8500 feet if the last tram had left.

The fingers of my hands were numb the next day, but I was glad to have made it, albeit 5 hours later than expected, without triggering a wilderness rescue attempt.

Epilogue : I happened to be in the area a week from the misadventure and decided to do the same hike again. I was better prepared this time with my Strava and AllTrails maps functional.

I was able to summit in three hours and followed the return path by closely watching the steps I took while ascending. In two hours, I was able to descend and reach the tram station. Along the way, I could see all the spots I had crossed in the dark when getting back on the prior hike.

The return journey in the tram at about 5pm also rewarded me with beautiful colorful sky views.

The tramway is hung over 5 towers and climbs from 2,500 to 8,500 feet in a short span of 8 minutes. The canyon views are dramatic, the rocks and mountain peaks of the San Jacinto area are amazing. The tram carries nearly 80 passengers and has a rotating floor, so everyone gets to see the 360-degree view while ascending and descending. The tram carriage dips when it passes the towers and many passengers are scared, it is funny to hear them scream. The tram operators play loud music that adds to the fun.

This time, I was back to the parking before 5pm, and quite happy to have completed the hike without getting lost and having erased the scary memory of the prior hike.