Tangential Adventures

On Sunday morning, we woke up with the sun, and were both pleased to note that temperatures overnight had dipped, but were probably only in the 30s, despite having set up camp at about 6500′ elevation. J had an uncharacteristic burst of morning energy and decided to get up and tromp a bit to a rock she had discovered the day before, to watch the sun rise over the local ridges.

While watching the sun come up, we decided our best option for day hiking was indeed the South Ridge trail, since we were already permited for it, and we were within a mile of the trailhead. We enjoyed a warm breakfast of oatmeal and cocoa up on a rock near our tent, then set about striking camp and heading off for the day’s adventure.

We decided it would make the most sense to swap some gear around and ditch my pack in the woods, and take J’s ultralight pack as a daypack. She volunteered to play pack sherpa for the day, so I was able to hike relatively unencumbered.

Once finding a suitable spot for my pack, we headed off to the trailhead. Conditions were similar to the road at first, with a mix of snow and occasional patches of bare ground. We only noted one other pair of footprints that had gone up and down the trail since the storm earlier in the week, so we were hopeful for a peaceful day.

As we made our ascent up the heavily switchbacked trail, we started to encounter more and more snow. At lower elevations, the trail was still easy to follow, as the snow cover was minimal and we had footprints to follow. Eventually we came out to a nice open expanse of rock, and discovered our friends who had made the footprints had turned around at this point, long before reaching the summit of Tahquitz (8828′). Our original plan had us possibly turning back here, or at least not far from here. However, J’s drive to reach peaks, my desire for more adventure, and the early hour all added up to us attempting the peak.

The snow had been getting deeper, and was also starting to soften up as the day warmed up. We had seen a few signs of postholing from our previous travelers downhill footprints, but it was nothing compared to what we would soon start to experience. As we pressed upwards, the snow continued to get deeper and somewhat more variable in consistency. We punched through more and more frequently, but the trail was still passable enough for us, even without snow shoes.

At higher elevations, the snowfall was enough such that the flat bed of the trail was getting harder and harder to spot. J put her backcountry trail-finding expertise to good use, and started to use the pruned bushes as a sure sign we were on the trail corridor. On the couple of occasions we felt like we were off-trail, we consulted my topo maps loaded onto my GPS for a second opinion.

The ascent was getting quite challenging once we were approaching 8000′, due to the depth of snow and frequent postholing, having difficulty following the trail, and also noticing the effects of the altitude on our bodies. As we were approaching the last part of the climb to the peak, the trail was so buried, and the ascent getting more vertical, that we started to think it would be smart to find a spot for lunch and turn back. With ice axes, crampons, and a little more food, water and time, we would have pressed on to the peak.

Lunch at 8500′ was a quick meal of bread/tortillas, gouda, and energy bars. I replenished some of my water by melting some snow in my Nalgene before we decided we should start our descent. We knew the postholing was going to be worse on our way down due to the even softer snow and extra force of our footfalls. Indeed, we were right – despite our much quicker pace, we both found ourselves well over knee-deep many times. It was also helpful to not have to find the trail on our way down, as we could trace our footsteps.

Unfortunately, due to all of the postholing and warm weather, we both found ourselves with very wet hiking boots. We decided to take a break at the flat rock where the previous hikers had stopped and attempt to at least partially dry out our socks and boots in the warm afternoon sun. This worked, though it was particularly unpleasant to put on the cold and clammy socks and boots after getting our feet dry.

The rest of the descent went fairly quickly as the snow became shallower and shallower. We soon found ourselves back at my pack, and proceeded the last mile down the road. On our way out we encountered a large group of parents and kids playing in the snow, sledding and tubing, lounging about in lawn chairs and drinking beer. It struck me as a cross between the party atmosphere of the closing Spring days at a ski resort and a beach gathering.

Once back at the car, we sloughed off our packs, thoroughly exhausted and damp and sun-exposed. We figured we did about an 8.5 mile day, under fairly difficult hiking conditions, with about 2000′ altitude gain.  Here’s a map of our hike for the day:

	#	Elevation	Distance	Time	Movingtime	Speed	Movingspeed	Max Speed	Climb Up	Climb Down
	1	1986 m	0.000 mi	0s	0s	-	-	-	-	-
	2	1777 m	8.129 mi	6h 35m 16s	6h 20m 44s	1.23 mph	1.28 mph	73.45 mph	2710 ft	3396 ft
Summary			8.129 mi	6h 35m 16s	6h 20m 44s	1.23 mph	1.28 mph	73.45 mph	2710 ft	3396 ft

We decided our best bet would be to drive a short ways down the road to the Mile High Cafe to grab some replenishing calories before heading out of town back to LA. Our drive out was over Rt. 74 and CA60, which took us through some gorgeous farm country. Lush greens were a contrast to the snow we had just come from, and from the desert of a few days before.

We hit relatively little traffic by CA standards, and got near LAX around 6:30. Gassed up the rental car in a semi-sketchy gas station which refused to give me a receipt (which my rental company claimed they needed as proof of a fillup within 10 miles). We then headed for our semi-fancy hotel, and did the annoying and vaguely stressful dance of check-in, car load-out and cleanup, and car return. A quick 0.9mile walk back from the car dropoff and we were finally able to take some much-deserved hot showers.

It was well past the time when we both should have had dinner, so between J’s low energy and my cranky mood, we were a fun bunch. Dinner at the hotel restaurant proved challenging with J’s gluten allergy (our waiter didn’t know what gluten was, and worse yet didn’t know there was wheat in pasta). Underwhelmed, but at least fed, we headed back up to our room to finish packing and get ready for our early flight back to BOS.