Deer Springs Trip Report

[stryder]

We started at about 9:15 on Saturday (4/4) from the deer springs trail head. Made it to Strawberry Junction just before noon after a leisurely hike. We stopped there for some lunch and thought to ourselves, "we should make little round valley (our intended camp) by 3 or so, with enough time to make it to the summit and back to camp". Trail was very clear and easy to follow all the way to Strawberry Junction. The amount of snow after SJ increases pretty dramatically as you start to enter the shielded side of the mountain. Very hard packed with no need for cramp-ons though. (At least not yet)
We made it almost all the way to the junction with Marion Mountain Trail fairly easily only losing the trail once. The amount of snow was making it difficult to follow the trail.
According to our map we only had 0.5 miles to the junction between the PCT and the trail up to little round valley. Over the next 1.5 hours we lost the trail 5 or 6 times and made our way using GPS to where we thought the junction should be, but could not find any sort of marker to confirm. At the point the GPS had us taking a sharp right up a very steep snow covered incline which we assume had switch-backs buried somewhere beneath (cramp-ons would've been nice here). Looking at our watches it was now 3:15, we had spent 1.5 hours going .5 miles and we still had 1 mile to go before making camp. With no trail to follow and the sun beginning to fall we made what was probably the correct decision and turned back to Strawberry Junction.
The mountain got the best of us that day. We plan to head back once the snow has melted and tackle deer springs again.

[Trendsearcher]

Sorry to hear about the set back. Don’t you hate it when you have to go up the snow banks and back down into the melt craters around the trees? It makes for a long day of up and down searching for even the slightest sign of a trail.

Consider yourself fortunate to find your back trail. I got lost in those conditions in that area (pre-GPS many years ago) and took a nasty wrong turn down the north fork of the San Jacinto River. That was a very dangerous mistake that I never want to make again – big cliffs, lots of butt sliding, well after dark. I would characterize that mistake as a self-rescue.

Glad you made it back safely, better luck next time.

[FSct]

Hey, thanks for the assist on Saturday! I'm sure I would've been hoofing it long after dark if we hadn't crossed paths.

Time for me to bite the bullet and pick up a gps. Map and compass are painfully inadequate.