July 9th 2011
This year at the beginning of Fall Kasia and I are going big. I have had this dream of doing the Rae Lake Loop in Kings Canyon National Park in one day for some years now. Kasia and I did this loop a couple years back but 5 days backpacking. This year we will attempt to cover 46 miles and 6943 vertical feet in one day on our feet. We plan on hiking parts and running parts of this amazing loop. It is such a small portion of the amazing beautiful Kings Canyon NP. We will hike 19 miles up and over Glenn Pass then a marathon back to our cars.
I had forgot how big mountains can be. Living in Southern California at the beach can do that. Just north of San Diego there are the mountains named the “Three Saints”. The three tallest mountains is Southern California make up this trio. The tallest is San Gorgonio and that is a beast of a climb up the Vivian Creek Trail. The next is San Jacinto Peak most famous for the Tram up from Palm Springs. The third is San Antonio or Mt. Baldy.
Kasia and I decided to get out in the mountains to prep for our upcoming adventures in the Sierras and because it is summer we feel this need to get into the mountains. We had wanted to hike out of Idyllwild CA for some time so we planned to head up there and hike to the summit of San Jacinto. We decided on the Devil’s Slide Trail out of Humber Park. We headed up early from San Diego and go to the wilderness office and got a permit and a parking pass. We then headed up to Humber Part and got ready for an elevation assault.
Mountains are rarely flat and we knew we would be headed up in order to reach the peak. The trail length was 8.1 miles and it included 4324 feet of elevation. We decided on an out and back so total would be 16.2 miles for the day. We thought to ourselves no problem. Kasia was tired from lack of sleep the night before. I also felt pretty tired after getting up at 5AM on a Saturday after working all week. But once we felt the mountain air we got inspired and we were off starting at 10AM. We packed some lunches and knew there would be water on the trail for us to use our SteriPen with.
The trail is all uphill with lots of switchbacks. We saw lots of people up till Saddle Junction where we hopped on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and headed towards the peak. We never saw any of the people we saw at Saddle Junction after that. I have another dream of doing the PCT so hiking any part of it gets me excited. It is a tough thing to plan because of our careers but one day we will do the entire PCT. I cannot wait for that 6 month adventure. After 1.9 miles of the PCT we veered off towards the summit and entered the San Jacinto Wilderness. The views were starting to get really amazing the higher we got.
We stopped at the Wellman Cinega and ate lunch and filtered two liters of water. It is always nice to eat near water. The water tasted real good and was really cold. Everything around the water at the Cinega was green compared to the surroundings. There were no traces of snow left from this year’s snow fall but we knew all that water was from the snow somewhere trapped inside the mountains.
As we hit the Wellman Divide the trail became familiar. We have taken the tram up to San Jacinto numerous times. But we had never hiked up from Idyllwild. I now like hiking up from Idyllwild more because its free and it takes less time to drive there than Palm Springs. I also like the fact you get to hike way more vertical feet. I know I am a sicko but I love going up.
Before we knew it we were at the summit of San Jacinto Peak. Naturalist John Muir wrote of San Jacinto Peak, "The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!" It is a pretty awesome place to chill and take in some views. You can see 360 degrees in all directions.
After a while we decided to head down. We were the only ones on the trail at this time. It was a magical time late in the day to be up in the mountains. It was perfect weather and a perfect day.
As the trail continued to descend we started to feel our legs more and more. We just did Ironman Texas and Xterra Tahoe City and I trail run all the time and man was I sore after this hike. As we reached the car we could really feel our bodies. We were sore.
What this trip did was remind me that we have to prepare for Kings Canyon in September. 46 miles in the Sierra is no joke. I know it will be painful, I anticipate that. I know it will suck at times. But at other times it will be amazing and when I look back on it, it will be the start……The start of something big!!!
Who knows what will be next? Maybe the PCT 50 mile trail run next year? All I know is it is going to be amazing. I never thought I would do an Ultra Marathon but we will see……
Awesome post! Without those huge packs you guys are really covering some serious distance!
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