Supply Train to the Tram Way

That's what my uncle Al asked me one summer while I was staying with my cousins up in Idyllwild....I was about 7 at the time and there would be about 100 mules and horses with about 25 Cowboys and Skinners including my dad going up with us.
They carried every thing from metal braces for the tram way, as well as food and other supplies for the crews working up at the summit on Mt San Jacinto. This was in 1960 and this was the building of the Palm Springs tramway.
The trail started in Idyllwild at the stables my Uncle Al Smith owned at the time....The trail wound out west of town and up towards Tahaquez Rock and then up the rock face rim of the North Face of Mt San Jacinto.....This is the side of the Mountain you always see as you travel out the Banning Pass on highway 10 to Palm Springs and the Southern Desert...It is also the side that is 10,000 feet straight up from the valley floor....It is also the side that the snow stays on right through the summer time.....So it colder and very windy up there on the top of that rock face, and where something happened that I still remember to this day.
It was nothing important except to me....I lost my hat...My brand new Cowboy hat....Anyway it blew off in the stiff wind and got carried down the side of the mountain....As one of the mule skinners said later it looked like it had fallen about 4,000 feet before it touched the side of the mountain.....I was mad and I wanted my hat back....I demanded that someone go for my hat.
Next thing I knew, my dad was smacking my arm and saying if you want it so bad you go get it.....After looking down the side of the mountain and realizing that no one, not even my dad was going to get off of there mounts and chase my hat through the snow and blowing wind....No one!
So I quit my balling, settled down and a enjoyed the rest of the trip up to the summit....After spending two days at the top while they unloaded the horses, they then loaded the horses with trash....All of the trash that seems to collect where humans build had to be brought down the Mountain.....They even let me lead a set of mules down the narrow trail back down to the Idyllwild area.
After we dumped all of the trash at the dump we headed back to the stables....I was able to lead my horse into its stall and take off its saddle and bridle and one the workers washed him down....Remind me to tell you about some the chores that my Uncle assigned to me and my cousins....He figured we needed to earn our keep one way or the other.
The next trip up to the summit, i had a new hat on and wore the strap under my chin...I didn't want to lose this one too....And guess what, this time we took up 2,000 rolls of toilet paper and the last four mules carried the parts for two out houses....I guess they forgot something after all..
But even to this day, i still miss my first hat....I wonder if it is still up there after 50 years, buried under the snow or caught under a rock....And No, I am not ever going to go find out....It ain't that important, seriously, it really isn'[img_assist|nid=799|title=North Face Of San Jacinto; The trail is at the top of the ridge and my brand new cowboy hat went over this side.|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=200|height=150]t....Still???.
Gary Hall the ghostpainter