North Lykken

Hiking date: January 1 2016 

Location: Palm Springs CA

Rate: normal

First hike of 2016! Kendall, my sister, wants to start hiking like us. So we took her on North Lykken. The trail starts off at a wide dirt road. See a trail that veers off to the left, which is the North Lykken trail. You start off switch backing up the hillside. Next, the trail enters a meadow of rocks and then goes along the mountain. As you ascend, notice two signs, both saying, "Don't veer off the trail". That is true, because once on Cactus To Clouds, we got lost on this trail. But a runner told us that we were on this trail. Make a bend, and see a sign that indicates the Museum/Skyline trail. At this point, you have gone half of the trail. We haven't been beyond there, but still, We thought this was fun.

Hard to believe that Kendall is on Cactus to Clouds:

Looking at view:

Skyline #4

Hiking date: December 30 2015

Location: Palm Springs CA

Rate: Hard

After all this time, Cactus to Clouds is here once more! We didn't go much further this time, but we reached our goal, the first rescue box (see below). But at the painted rocks, we veered off the trail. To make things worse, once we got back on the trail, a lady told us we were on the North Lykken trail. So we hiked back to the painted rocks and continued up. About two hours later, we reached the first rescue box (see below for details). As we went up, we entered a shaded part. It is VERY steep at some points and is also the point we stopped. Our el. was 3003 feet. It was a very good hike.

One of the painted rocks:

Our goal: the first rescue box

Note: the first rescue box is one of of the two boxes that can save someones LIFE. People try to make it to the top and realize that they can't make it. But once they start coming down, it gets too hot and hard to keep hiking. And that's when the rescue boxes come in. When they reach a height of 5400 or 2100 feet (the elevation of the rescue boxes), they are saved! Here are a couple pictures of the rescue box

Clear view of the first rescue box:

Inside the first rescue box: