Mount San Jacinto Via Marion Mountain Trail (Tuesday, June 23, 2009) Sort of

The day began with high hopes of bagging one the three highest peaks in Southern California. I woke up at around 3:40 in the morning excited to see the majestic views of Mount San Jacinto Peak, namely the Salton Sea. We left the mountain around 3:45 defeated without reaching the summit. All in all, it was one of the most challenging hikes thus far and I enjoyed pushing my limits getting up most of mountain.


View Mount San Jacinto in a larger map

Randy, Alex, and Anthony (Virgin Hike) came by my house around 4:00 A.M. and we were off on our San Jacinto adventure. It was a long ride from the house to Banning where we traveled south toward the Marion Mountain Trail. We ended up reaching the campground around 6:15 and made our preparations for the day's hike. I had a couple of new toys with me on the hike which I was excited to use, a new camera, and a Garmin GPS Navigation device. They had been gifts from my lovely wife for various occasions and I could not wait to get them going. If you notice the picture quality from the Mount Baldy post, I was using a six year old camera from Jennifer which did not come out too clear. The new camera would suit me just fine.



We entered the trail head for the Marion Mountain Trail at around 6:15 and began the 5 1/4 trek up the trail to the summit. I must say that in preparation for the hike, I had read up bit on this particularly trail and it was described as a "butt buster." That is definitely a valid assessment. The first mile of the Trek was steep and long. It seemed to take us forever to get the junction with the Pacific Coast Trail 2.8 miles up the path. As we were on our way, I was defiantly feeling the steep accent in my quads and shins. I had to stop several times during the first mile because my legs were shot, this slowed the group down considerably, and I was reminiscent of the Mount Baldy hike, where Al, Randy, and J.B. coined the phrase "Dave duty." I was determined to not have this moniker follow me this trip so I pushed on and as we cleared the first part of the trail, my legs began to become acclimated with the hike and usable again. I was really impressed with the way Anthony did for much of the hike. It being his first time and all, kept a steady pace for much of the hike.

After the first mile of the trail, we seemed to lose the trail and veered of west of the trail approaching the Seven Pines Trail. We tried, in vain, for an hour and a half, to pick up the Marion Trail further along the route to continue our journey up the San Jacinto Mountain but could not locate it. The long detour took a lot out of some of us and by the time we picked up the trail head and continued the Marion mountain trail, it was nearly 10:00. This detour was a devastating blow to our hopes of reaching the summit, but under Randy's determination we pressed on pushing our way towards the summit.

Mount San Gorgonio

Mount Baldy

The next part of the trail head up through some boulders and and intersects the famed Pacific Crest Trail. From there we followed the trail to the treeline towards the Little Round Valley which was about 1 1/2 miles from the San Jacinto Summit. We never got that far.

Following the Deer Springs trail we crossed a stream on the North Fork of the San Jacinto River where Randy was able to fill up is pack and filter some cold and refreshing water. This was much need as even though were were traveling higher in elevation, the weather was getting a bit hotter.

Getting water from the creek

Energy

Go Dirtbags

As we trekked up the mountain, through heavy thickets of brush that scraped the you know what out of our legs, discussions were starting to envelop the group as to the turn back time. It had been decided that if we did not get to Little Round Valley by 1:30, then we would head back. We ended up reaching a section of boulders nearing the treeline where we stopped for a break. It was around 1:15 and we were still a couple of miles from San Jacinto peak. In fact we could see both the peak and Little Round Valley up ahead. It was determined that we should begrudgingly cut our trek and head back down. This was a bitter sweet moment as we head trekked up to about 9500 feet and could see the goal, but we knew that reaching it was a good 2 - 2 1/2 hours away. So we tossed our stuff down and had lunch. Even though we did not reach the summit, it was nice to relax for a little bit and hang out while taking in the incredible views from that area.

Mount San Jacinto Peak

Soooo Close

Little Round Valley

The Gnome was to heartbroken to make an appearance.

The trek down to the car was done at a swift pace which we reached in a couple of hours. Disappointment about not reaching the summit quickly faded away as I was looking forward to reaching the car and eating at Del Taco. Even though we were able to reach the car at 3:45, the trek became a bit difficult as the weather increased as we dropped in altitude. I kept thinking of the 90 degree weather that was waiting for us in Banning when we got down the mountain. I had used the GPS device to travel up the mountain marking spots along the trail, and it had played a role in finding the trail after we had been lost, but it became most handy on the way down when I figured out how to navigate to the car. This feature allowed us to track the miles that remained on the hike and went along way for improving morale.

Anthony, ready to bail.

This was a beautiful hike with some pretty spectacular views of the San Gorgonio Valley. At points along the trail we were able to look back and spot Mount Baldy. I enjoyed hiking through pine forests, boulders, and creeks. Even though we did not make the summit, I still enjoyed getting out into nature and spending time with great friends.