Outlaw Trail

28-Oct-95 (San Diego Peaks Club)

By: Paul Freiman

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What a trip! Eighty athletic hikers attempted the 8,000 foot ascent from downtown Palm Springs to the tram top with 25 deciding to bag the peak, Mt San Jacinto, for a 10,400 foot dayhike. SDPC member Tim Downey sprinted past everyone and reached the top in 7 hours (ie. 1500 feet per hour!!!!).

I picked a heck of a day to try this trip. I purposely chose to do it with the DPS from LA, but I didn't know the Coachella Valley Hiking Club (CVHC) was doing their 3rd annual hike with 38 people. Combine this with 16 hikers from the DPS and 17 from SDPC, 3 all the way from San Jose, and 6 independents and you have an eventful day. For those of you who hate hiking in crowds, it wasn't bad. The CVHC started, as I did, from the Ramon Road trailhead. Their "peak group" started at 5am and their "tram group" started at 5:45am. SDPC started at 6am. Meanwhile, the DPS was starting over at the Desert Museum, a shorter route, at 5:30am. Tim got to pass a lot of people, but we tortoises didn't meet too many people.


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