Mount San Jacinto State Park. Palm Springs, California

Mount San Jacinto State Park

This week, I finally made my first trip to Palm Springs to hike in Mount San Jacinto State Park. My girlfriend and I had a few consecutive days off and we made the decision to drive up at midnight the night before. I found a cheap hotel about ten miles down the road in the town of Desert Hot Springs through Travelocity for $60. The Aqua Soleil looked nice in the photos, so we booked it and headed out at 10 a.m. the next morning.

We made it to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway around noon. Tickets for the tram cost us $24 each. You're basically forced to take the tram, because if you tried to hike from the bottom, it would take you around 7 hours and ten miles of hiking with 8,000 feet of elevation gain. People who have hiked it say that its worse than hiking Mount Whitney. The tram ride takes around ten minutes. Once we reached the station at the top, the temperature was  around 30 degrees cooler than on the desert floor below. It was a nice change to hike in 60 degree weather in the middle of a desert. The tram station at the top has a few small restaurants where you can buy food and snacks. I bet a lot of people never make it outside of the tram station.

We opted to start with an easy trail. The Desert View Trail is about 1.5 miles round-trip with a slight uphill elevation gain going in. This is the trail that most of the tourists do. There are 5 overlooks along the trail with views of the valley floor below. I was surprised to see so many large Jeffrey Pine trees in the park. I have no idea where they are getting water from because the creek was bone dry and we haven't had a significant rain or snow in several years now. October is a really great time to see Mount Jacinto. We could not have wished for better weather. My only regret was that we should have done this trail during sunset and not in the middle of the day. You can see all of Palm Springs below and I bet it looks amazing at night.

The next trail we hit was the Round Valley Trail. For this section of the park, we had to stop at the ranger station and fill out a permit. It only took about 3 minutes, it was free, and the ranger gave us a map. The hike to the Round Valley Campground from the tram is about 4 miles round-trip with approximately 1000 feet in elevation gain. It took us less than two hours and we stopped a bunch and goofed off. We really should have hiked the last mile past Round Valley to Wellman's Divide, but I was really sore from playing basketball the day before and I was really looking forward to a seafood dinner and a bottle of wine in Palm Springs. If you plan on hiking all the way to the top of Mount San Jacinto you would follow the signs and continue on past Round Valley. It gets rough from this point on, so make sure to bring enough water and allow yourself enough time to make the last tram out. The hike from the tram to the peak of Mount San Jacinto and back is about 11 miles round-trip and may take as long as 7 hours because of the thin air and elevation gain. I would like to come back and turn it into an overnight trip sometime and just camp at Round Valley.

All in all it was a pretty awesome trip, but a little more expensive than our typical day hikes after we racked up a bill at the restaurant that night and then drank ourselves into a coma at the bar. We found a couple of cool places around Palm Springs that I thought I would mention:

Tonga Hut
An awesome little bar in Palm Springs that serves tropical drinks. The bartenders were rad and we spent our night sampling beers with them.

Ruben and Ozzy's Oyster Bar
A east-coast style Oyster Bar. The Campechana appetizer was glorious. I tried to bribe the waiter to steal the recipe for me.

 The Aqua Soleil Hotel

It was $60 for a room midweek and the rooms had just been renovated. They have two hot tubs and a large pool. The pool and hot tubs were open 24 hours and we had them to ourselves. 

To do for next time:

Murray Canyon Hike

6 miles roundtrip

Trailhead in the Indian Canyons located on S. Palm Canyon Dr.

Admission charge; Information (760) 323-6018

TahquitzCanyon

3.5 mi roundtrip, 300 ft. gain, 2 to 3 hrs 

Trailhead: at the Tahquitz Visitor Center located on Mesquite Ave.

Read More

John Muir Trail. Yosemite National Park

John Muir Trail 2014

If nature would've cooperated, this post could have been a happy tale of 4 people trekking across green meadows and sleeping under stars. As it happened, our 3 day backpacking trip was cut short by a freezing cold rainstorm at 10,000 feet and our tent which kept out the water about as well as a single slice of Swiss cheese.

My brother had planned our little backpacking trip a few months ahead of time.  The plan was to hike 8 miles from Tuolumne Meadows to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp on the first night, then 5 miles to a spot on Sunrise Creek the second night, and finally 11 miles to Half Dome and back into Yosemite Valley on the third night to stay at the backpacker’s camp.

We headed out from Tuolumne Meadows early on the first day and headed to Sunrise High Sierra Camp on the John Muir Trail. This 8 mile section of the John Muir Trail is one of the most beautiful trails in the United States.  You pass through redwood forests, towering mountains, across pristine meadows, past glacial lakes and granite domes.  There were several natural springs along the trail where you could fill your water bottle directly from the creek.  We had blue skies and 65 degree temps all day. It was a glorious day.

The Sunrise High Sierra Camp is built along the hillside of the High Sierra Trail. The canvas cabins were still down and the stone lodge was closed, so the only amenity we had was an outhouse and a creek for filtering water.  The mosquitoes were out in force, so we started gathering wood for a campfire the minute after we set up our tents. We made a huge pile of wood at the community fire ring. There were about a dozen other people at the camp when we arrived, but no one lifted a finger to help us gather wood. By contrast, you should have seen the amount of "help" we got when were actually lighting the fire. We spent the evening sitting by the fire, boiling water for our Mountain House Meals. The Mountain House “Chicken with Rib Meat ad Mashed Potatoes” is quite literally the best freeze dried meal I've ever eaten. By sundown, there were about 20 people hanging out by the fire with us. 

Fast-forward to 4am. The temperature outside plummets to 38 degrees and the rains starts, slowly at first, and then it turns into a torrential downpour that lasts 6 hours. By 10 am, our 2-man tent is sagging on top of us. Water has soaked our sleeping bags and all of our gear. My girlfriend is on the verge of tears. We can’t access the weather through her phone, so we have no idea how long the rain is supposed to last. The forecast had called for clear skies, so the rain was a complete surprise. There is no hell on earth like laying in a soaking wet sleeping bag in near freezing conditions, miles from civilization, while you're girlfreind is sobbing next to you.  We made the decision to break camp and head back to Tuolumne Meadows, rather than risk 2 more nights in the rain with a useless tent and soaked gear.

We hike 8 miles over the mountain in less than 2 hours with our wet packs that weigh twice as much as they had the day before.  The rain literally never lets up and temperature never really gets above 45 degrees. We stopped once for 5 minutes to eat a granola bar. The trail that had been so beautiful the day before, was now completely blanketed by a heavy endless fog. We passed at least a dozen other hikers on the trail who looked as miserable as I felt.

We reach our car around noon and change into dry clothes. We drove into 2 hours to Oakhurst and shelled out 189$ for a motel room that would have cost 40$ anywhere else in the United States. We spent that night in the motel watching cable movies and eating BBQ Brisket in our comfy queen-size bed.

My brother and his girlfriend actually continued on to Half Dome.  A bear raided their campsite the next day and rummaged through their gear. Other than that, he says they never ran into any more problems and they made it to the dome. 

I guess the lesson here is to splurge for a better tent? 

Cathedral Lake. John Muir Trail

Read More

The Best of Yosemite National Park. (For the First Time Visitor)

Half Dome and Yosemite Valley as seen from Glacier Point 

Yosemite National Park is a a hiker's paradise, but the number of great hikes in the park makes planning a trip a daunting task. I literally spent weeks planning and researching my first trip to Yosemite National Park. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything awesome. The end result was an amazing trip. Yosemite is probably my favorite National Park.  I've already done the work, so why should you? I'm posting the list of my favorite hikes in Yosemite so you won't have to. If you think I missed anything major, feel free to add it in the comment section.



1. Hike up the Mist Trail from Happy Isles to the top of Nevada Falls and come back down the John Muir Trail. If you have the time, the permit and the leg strength, you can hike all the way to Half Dome.

2. I would plan a day and do the short hikes around Yosemite Valley. My favorites are Bridalveil Falls, The Mariposa Grove of giant Redwood Trees, Lower Yosemite Falls, Mirror Lake and possibly a short raft trip on the Merced River from Curry Village.

3. I would highly recommend a drive up to Glacier Point. This is the best place in the park to view Yosemite Valley. You can pick up the Panorama Trail from Glacier Point and hike 2 miles downhill to Illouette Falls. This hidden waterfall is one of the best in the park. The return trip to the car is a leg burner.

4. Definitely consider driving east and exiting Yosemite through Tioga Pass. The crowds are sparse in this part of the park and the scenery  is definitely worth an little extra drive time. Lembert Dome is one of the best hikes in Yosemite. This part of the park features glacial lakes and green meadows around every turn. Mono Lake is located at the East entrance and features some of Southern California's best natural hot springs.

Attention: Tioga Pass and Glacier Point are usually only accessible in the summer months. 

Read More

My Top 5 Favorite Hiking Movies

The Way Back 2010

I thought I would make a list of good hiking related movies. I tried to link all of the movies back to IMDB. The Way Back and The Road are two of my all time favorite movies in any genre.  If you think of a good movie that I missed, feel free to add it to the comment section at the bottom of this post.

Backcountry 2014
I recently caught this film at the Newport Beach Film Festival. I added it to the top of the list because it's easily the best hiking films I've ever seen. Without giving too much away, the story is about two hikers from the city who run into some serious trouble on a backcountry trail. Do yourself a favor and don't read about the film on IMDB before you actually see it.

1. The Way Back 2010
This is a film about a group of WWII prisoners who escape a Russian gulag and hike several thousand miles across Siberia, the Gobi Desert and finally the Himilayas before reaching freedom in India. This is my all time favorite hiking movie.

2. Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago 2012
I caught this documentary at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2013. I don't think it has been officially released, so good luck finding it. This is a documentary about several people who are hiking the ancient El Camino de Santiago trail on a pilgrimage to the the Santiago de Compostela cathedral in Spain.

3. The Way 2010
A father heads overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the "El camino de Santiago," and decides to take the pilgrimage himself. -IMDB

4. The Road 2009
This is one of the most brutal films I've ever seen. It's essentially about a father and son who are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. They hike through abandoned towns with a shopping cart full of supplies trying to avoid marauders, rapists, thieves and cannibals. This film is almost too depressing to handle in a single sitting. From a visual standpoint, it's easily one of the best films made in the past ten years.


5. America's Wild Spaces: Pacific Crest Trail 2010
This National Geographic Documentary is amazing and nearly impossible to find. I can't find the link to buy it from National Geographic or even rent it from Netflix. This is easily the best documentary ever made about the Pacific Crest Trail. You can download it from Pirate Bay as a torrent.

Honorable Mentions:
SouthBounders 2005
This is a low budget indie film about a group of people hiking the Appalachian Trail. Its feels more like a great documentary than a film. It really makes you want to hit the trail. The only downside to this film is the horrible soundtrack.

127 Hours 2010
It's not really a hiking movie, but it's a must-see movie for anyone who hikes. Not to spoil it, but the movie is basically 90 minutes of James Franco stuck in a canyon.

The Lord of the Flies 1990 1963
Both Lord of the Flies movies are classics. I prefer the 1990 version because I saw it in the theater when I was a kid and I feel some nostalgia for it, but most people say the older black and white film was better.


And finally, here is a list of movies on IMDB that a user put together of hiking and nature related films
http://www.imdb.com/list/YCmflZ_Ek0I/?ref_=tt_rls_5

Read More

Cactus Eaters. How I lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cactus Eaters Dan white

I just finished Catus Eaters by first-time author Dan White. It was one of the best things I've read all year. Cactus Eaters is a dark comedy about a guy who goes hiking with his girlfriend on the Pacific Crest Trail and all the mishaps they ecounter along the way. This is really a novel about man vs nature, where nature kicks man's ass for most of the story. The Amazon reviews are mostly favorable, but I got a kick out of reading the negative responses from readers who thought Dan was a narcissistic asshole. I can just see those West Coast hippies at their LGBT book club ranting about gender inequality and male privilege and it cracks me up. If you plan on hiking the PCT, you may want to read this book first. Perhaps it will knock some sense into you.

Read More

Pacific Crest Trail Gear

Hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail

This is a cool blog about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I've started doing some preliminary research for a hike of my own in the next few years. The author of  includes a lot of gear reviews. The picture above is a re-post from her website.
http://www.walkingwithwired.com/2011/11/complete-pct-thru-hike-gear-review.html

And here is a link to another great website with resupply points on the Pacific Crest Trail.
http://www.planyourhike.com/

And another amazing resource
http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/long-distance-hiking/

And here is a Google map for the entire Pacific Crest Trail
Pacific Crest Trail Google Map

Read More

Hiker Wore Sneakers in The Snow, Got Hypothermia

Noob Hiker

I don't know how I missed this story. I have an Google alert for "hypothermia+hiker+Darwin". This guy should be permanently banned from hiking in California.

http://banning-beaumont.patch.com/articles/missing-hiker-found-cold-wet-but-safe-in-hemet

Read More