trail camping in USFS section of SJW

[Rob]

Last Friday night (10/12/2007) we trail camped just beyond Saddle Junction in the USFS section of San Jacinto Wilderness. This was our first experience trail camping in SJW, and I was impressed with how well-organized the procedures are at the Ranger Station.

At 11:10 p.m. we self-issued our camping permit at the USFS Idyllwild Ranger Station. Apparently rangers pre-stamp a certain number of permits for each camping zone and leave them outside on the self-issue desk. Rangers staple a map to each permit and highlight on the map the camping zone that corresponds to that permit.

In view of the late hour and unstable weather I had planned mentally to pull a permit for the first camping zone on the RIGHT after Saddle Junction (Chinquapin Zone); however, on arrival at the Ranger Station I found no self-issue permits remaining for that zone. Nevertheless, after a moment of fumbling I found and self-issued a permit for the first zone on the LEFT after Saddle Junction (North Rim Zone).

The camping zone map attached to each permit is virtually the same map as:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/documents/san_jacinto_wilderness_map..pdf [double dot intended]

We parked at Humber Park then hiked uneventfully 2.2 miles up Devil's Slide Trail in 1 hour 13 minutes passing through Saddle Junction at about 1 a.m. then leaving Saddle Junction behind we maneuvered to the left into North Rim Camping Zone and pitched our tent just in time to protect us from the rain that started at about 1:30 a.m.

In the morning someone suggested that we should have put more distance between ourselves and Saddle Junction before we pitched our tent. I knew that Saddle Junction is well-posted as a no camping zone but in darkness while searching for a soft tent spot I drifted within daylight sight of Saddle Junction. It seems that in the North Rim Zone we're expected to camp close to the trail marker gateway (of logs & rocks) that leads the way into the heart of the North Rim Zone. Is that correct? For future reference I GPS'd the location of the North Rim Camping Zone trail marker at: N33 46.644 W116 39.828 (WGS84) and the location of the Skunk Cabbage Camping Zone trail marker at: N33 46.687 W116 39.702 (WGS84). Before I trail camp here again I will need to decode the difference between camping in a zone and camping at a Brown Post Site. Also I don't understand the significance on the map of Brown Post Site numbers 2B, 3B, and 4B. "B" is for brown, but the number refers perhaps to the number of available spots?

On Saturday (10/13/2007) the Saddle Junction area was buzzing with Mountain Rescue training. Looked like they were having a good time.