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The original was posted on /r/Ultralight by /u/Zwillium on 2025-01-06 22:04:19+00:00.
TLDR
The SDTCT is a pretty banging winter thru hike! It can be done in a week and is super accessible. It’s technically a route, but the navigation challenges are minimal, so give it a shot!
About the Trail
The San Diego Trans County Trail (aka the “Sea to Sea trail”) is a roughly 150-mile route spanning from the Salton Sea in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It crosses 10 (!) microbiomes and has a surprising amount of diversity for such a short trail. It also does a great job “staying in nature”, despite running through some dense urban areas, particularly around the coast.
Buck30 has a fantastic trip report and, if you read nothing else, skip this and go read that. Note that Brian hiked during what seems like a very wet year. I don’t know if that year was an outlier, or my hike was an outlier, but your trail miles may vary significantly based on the weather conditions! I had highs in the 70s, lows in the 30s, and not a single drop of rain throughout the whole week.
About Me
37-year old male, creeping up on 10k miles, and looking to get away from the DC snow and winter over Christmas and New Year's.
EABO or WEBO?
The trail doesn’t see a ton of hikers, so not sure there’s a “standard”, but ending at the Pacific Coast is both much more dramatic and logistically way easier. Go west, young man!
Getting to/from the Trailhead
This worked well for me, so I’d encourage others to do the same:
- Fly into San Diego Airport and rent a car with drop off at Palm Springs
- Drop water caches at Arroyo Salado Campground (mm 19) and Plum Canyon Trailhead (mm 56).
- Drop a food cache (optional) at Lake Cuyamaca (mm ~80)
- Drop the car off at Palm Springs and Uber to the Eastern Terminus
- From the Western Terminus, hop on the 101 bus which will take you to Downtown San Diego in about 30 minutes
Food
I carried 3 days of food from the Eastern Terminus and dropped 3 days of food at Lake Cuyamaca. Due to some...”miscommunication” (more on this later), I was unable to pick up my food at Lake Cuyamaca. However, due to a Hanukkah miracle, my 3 days of food lasted the whole trip! (This was largely a combination of over-packing, expecting -- but not getting -- hiker hunger, and the frequent restaurants I ate at on, or nearby, the trail).
If you wanted to carry as little as possible, you could feasibly resupply in these locations:
- Borrego Springs (mm 35 - full service grocery store + restaurant)
- Lake Cuyamaca (mm 80 - restaurant with very limited resupply)
- Ramona (mm 100 - hotels + restaurants + grocery stores, a few miles off trail)
- Barona (mm 117 - hotel/casino a few miles off trail)
- From mm ~120 or so to the Western Terminus, you are never more than a few miles away from an Uber, a gas station, a restaurant, or a hotel.
Water
I carried 4L of water, which was plenty for me. The longest carries were:
- Eastern Terminus to first cache at Arroyo Salado Campground (~19 miles)
- Plum Canyon Cache to Lake Cuyamaca (~23 miles)
I probably could have gotten away with 3L (daytime temps never went above ~75F or so.)
I only saw 2 sources of running water:
- Stuart Spring (mm 50), which was dribbling at a rate of ~0.2L/min
- Coming down El Cajon (mm ~112) there was some clean, flowing water.
Buck30 mentioned Pena Spring as a perennial source, but I did not check if it was flowing. It did have a very permanent looking sign though! Cedar Creek did appear to have some stagnant water, but not sure how collectible it was. The San Diego River (mm 98) was bone dry.
Mileage
| Day | End Mileage | Daily Mileage | Location | |
|
|
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| | 1 | 24 | 24 | Around "Fonts Wash" | | 2 | 45 | 21 | After Montezuma Valley Road Crossing | | 3 | 79 | 34 | Stonewall Mine “Museum”, Lake Cuyamaca | | 4 | 100 | 21 | Riviera Oaks Resort & Racquet Club | | 5 | 122 | 22 | Ramada Inn, Poway | | 6 | 137 | 15 | Ramada Inn, Poway | | 7 | 154 | 17 | Finish! |
Other Hikers
I saw a grand total of zero other thru hikers. I’d be curious to know how many people actually hike this trail, but I’m guessing it’s less than 10/year. I saw about ~50 day hikers going to the (dry) Cedar Creek Falls, and another ~200 or so day-trippers enjoying Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve right near the coast (this was a Saturday, so lots of families on short walks, as well as mountain bikers).
Yays and Nays
- Yay to Buck30 for his excellent trip report, and excellent planning advice. In particular, he highlighted a “mysterious connector road” which (despite me interpreting his notes incorrectly) saved me an hour or two of dense brush, heartache, bloody legs, and almost certainly lots of tears. Thank you Brian!
- Yay to u/redbob333, who turned me on to this trail when I posted about finding a trail a month ago. I had never heard of this trail prior, so thank you redbob - without your post, I’d probably be stuck on the Florida trail or somewhere equally heinous!
- Yay to u/blue_indian, who sold me the amazing Atelier Longue Distance pack I used (more on this later!)
- Yay to Cam Honan, who, ever since I read his Ouachita Trip Report, has inspired me to sleep in a privy on trail. Despite my best efforts, I didn’t make it this time, but 2025 is looking good!
- Yay to whoever planned/designed/built the SDTCT. For traversing some densely populated areas, the trail does an amazing job staying “in nature”. With the exception of walking through a couple neighborhood backyards, I kept expecting to be walking down urban streets, but never had to!
- Yay to Kelly from Hawaii, who offered to take my excess water cache and even gave me a handful of Macadamia nuts. Hope you made it to Mexico in time for New Years!
- Yay to PMags. This might sound funny or a bit silly, but as a fellow short guy (5’6”), I sometimes daydream about how much awesomer of a thru hiker I would be if I had the height and legs of someone like Skurka. If only I stood 6’2”, surely I’d be able to do even more incredible things. Then I read Paul’s comments, advice, and excellent blog & trip reports, and realize that I’m only limited by my grit and imagination, not my child-sized inseam. So thanks for being inspirational, Paul!
- Meh to the San Diego Trans-County Trail Facebook group. It’s a private group, and I tried joining, but my “membership” is still pending, a month later. I can’t blame the admin -- who still uses Facebook? -- but maybe consider adding another admin?
- Meh to the worker at the Pub at Lake Cuyamaca who took my resupply, took my $20 tip, and failed to mention that the restaurant would be closed on New Years Day, and didn’t bother to pass the food to the Bait Shop literally 20 feet down the road that was open on New Years Day.
- A big fat stinky nay to Dollar Rental car, who wasted my time on two separate days, telling me my reserved car did not, in fact, exist. (Obligatory Seinfeld reference) I don’t mind you running out of cars over the holidays, but don’t make me come all the way in to tell me you can’t fulfill my reservation!
Gear
I used this hike as a “new gear” shakedown for all the stuff I’ve wanted to try out:
Atelier Longue Distance 30 L custom pack
I’ll be the first to admit I really didn’t want to like this pack. I have 2 Nashville Cutaways that I love -- and Grant’s customer service is absolutely top notch -- but I think unfortunately I like this pack even more!
Things it does well:
- The shoulder straps are fixed and non-adjustable. Somehow, despite the original purchaser and me being 6 inches difference in height (and 1.5 inches difference in torso length), the pack fits me like a glove.
- The shoulder straps are also sewn to the pack, which makes it feel much sturdier when I’m putting it on and taking it off.
- The mesh shoulder pockets seem just a bit wider than my Cutaways, which make putting a 1L Smartwater bottle much easier.
- Despite being French-made, the pack is sexy as hell.
Downsides:
- Either I’ve lost shoulder mobility, or getting water bottles out of the side pockets is not super practical for me.
- The front pocket has way less capacity than the Cutaway. (I believe the Cutaway uses “bullet mesh”, which has a lot more stretch.
Layout:
I organized the pack as follows:
- Front large shoulder pockets: Two 1L water bottles
- Bottom Left shoulder strap pocket: Squeeze tube of PB, headlamp, sunscreen
- Bottom Right shoulder pocket: rain gloves, cold weather gloves, water scoop, compass, hand towel
- Left side pocket: Two 1L water bottles
- Right side pocket: Aeon Li tent
- Front Pocket: Rain Kilt, Rain Jacket, Poop Kit
- Bottom Pocket: Wind Shirt, Wind Pants
- Main Body: Everything else
I’ve never carried water in my front shoulder pockets, but it’s a total game changer. I think shifting that weight forward puts a lot less pressure on the back of my ankles, which is typically where I get sore. I hardly had any soreness on this hi...
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