Today was the big day to climb mount San Jacinto. I planned to get up early and get some of the climbing done before the heat of the day. So, despite this excellent plan, I rolled out of camp at 7:45, my latest start yet. The first 8 miles featured 2000 feet of climbing, so that was a strong start to the day. As things progressed, I worked my way above 7000 and then above 8000 feet. When I hit about 7,500 I started running into problems. This was probably the highest elevation I have ever been at, and my lungs were letting me know that. Each breath seemed to provide too little oxygen, and despite no fatigue in my legs, I struggled to put one on front of the other. That was tough, so I slowed down a lot, and was soon caught by two other hikers.
Well, first, a short side story. There were two water options at midday - Live Oak Spring or Eagle Spring. They were both a long descent off trail, but eagle was a shorter distance so I choose that one. They seemed equal on the water report, but apparently I made the strong choice... This spring was a SLOW trickle at best into a large cattle trough half covered in algae. I hung a bottle under the pipe, but after 20 minutes I only had 12 oz. This would get me all of a mile, so I bit the bullet and filled my other b bottle from the through and added a strong dose of iodine. I had wanted to pick up a few more liters here so I could skip the next water source, but that wasn't in the cards. So as I was walking towards the next junction, Positive ID and Flip Flop caught up to me. They had similar water need so we so bombed down the half mile together. This spring at Fobes Trail was in better shape, so I took four liters for the last 8 miles of the day. Positive ID took off right away while Flip Flop and I did some foot care - a top hiker priority, right after food. Turns out he hiked the Appalachian Trail in '04 and was out for his second long trail. He grew up just 30 minutes from Champaign, so we got to talking about the area for awhile. We had made it about 5 miles when I stopped to check my water and realized I had chugged three liters already and I only had one left. Man, this elevation takes its toll on you. I was a struggling pretty badly, and he was kind enough to stock with me as we worked our way up to the stream.
We ran into Noah and Positive ID camped at 176, but we had to push on due to our water situation - Flip Flop was having similar, but not quite such a severe shortage. I had about 100 mL for the last mile, and had already been using gatorade mix to help keep my body working well. Night had fallen on the east side on the mountain, so we were walking by headlamp, when suddenly we came to a large snow bank beside the trail. Prefect! I crammed snow into my water bottle and shook it fiercely. The resulting mixture looked exactly like a margherita, except for the flavor of course. This was the humble beginning of the sno-gherita, (or maybe sno-gatorita?) which will hopefully make more delicious and refreshing appearances in the future. Re-energized, we plowed ahead to the creek where I drank my fill then looked for a suitable campsite. We had seen none coming in, and the area was littered with fallen trees and branched, so we made a tough decision - sleep ON the trail. This predicated an early morning to prevent being stepped on, but I was so wiped, I was willing to do anything in order to finally put an end to this tough day.
Miles Today: 22
Trip Mileage: 177
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