DUG, Sorry to hear about the chafing. I made the SJ summit on Sat 8/14, but it wasn't the day I had planned either.
I mentioned my 'training' hikes at a get together over 4th of July wekend. A friend asked if she could tag along on the SJ hike. I said sure, without thinking. I forgot about the agreement until Friday, when she contacted me about the details of meeting for the hike. We had done Mt Wilson in May, when I was just getting into hiking shape, and we did ok together, but this was much higher altitude and I'm in much better hiking shape, as she hasn't been hiking since Mt Wilson. I knew I had to adjust my mental outlook/expectation of the day.
Anyway, it was still a great day, weather was good, nice people on the trail, enjoyed the summit. (Ran in to a group of 15 from San Diego that were training for Whitney. They will be up in a couple of weeks for a day hike) I now understand why Devils Slide is a popular trail. Great views, well maintained.
However, it was a later start than I like, 6:45am, slower pace than I like for a training hike (and I'm no speedster up the trail), took a little over 5.5 hrs to summit. (I orginally gave myself a target of 4 - 4.5 hrs.) And the return downhill was almost as slow. We decided to call the people comming up from the tram: trammers or trammies. I was really glad to get past that trail junction on the way down. It was close to a 10 hr day car-to-car, instead of a 8 hr day. On the car ride home we both agreed my training hikes probably should be solo or with someone else that is more of a morning person and has a little better pace.
