April 29, 2011 Skyline Trail (Spines-to-pines)

April 29, 2011 I'll be hiking the skyline trail from the Palms Springs museum to the top of the Palm Springs Tram (about 8,000ft elevation gain.)  Joining me will be Mike Weinberg.  We are leaving at 3:30 am from the museum (being dropped off by Teresa Gaulin) we aren't leaving a car in the lot.

I have done a longer version of this trail before and am bringing my GPS with a track of the route from my last hike in 2006. We are carrying about 6 liters of water each, light windbreakers, food, first aid kit, headlights, treking poles and other 10 essentials (see photo).  I am carrying a small bivy sack and a SPOT satellite rescue beacon. Mike W is carrying similar gear and has a cell phone.   We expect to be at the tram mountain station a little before noon where my sister Teresa plans to meet us.
Use this link to follow our SPOT track in (almost) real time.

Weblinks regarding this trail, new rescue boxes or the longer cactus-to-clouds
http://www.shyamal.com/Hikes/MtSanJ_C2C/SanJacintoC2C.html
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cactus-to-clouds-hike-mt-san-jacinto-peak-palm-springs
http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/50940/
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_erescue20.2e3c8bf.html