Marion and the missing 10Ks

[tekewin]

I finally got back to finish the hike I started last year, getting the rest of the 10Ks. I started from Marion Mountain Trail and visited peaks in this order:

Mt. St. Ellens (unofficial)
Marion Mountain (west, middle, east)
Shirley Peak (unofficial)
Joyce Peak (unofficial)
Newton Drury Peak

I found all the registers except on Joyce. I'm not sure there is a Joyce register. The photo book and purple register on St. Ellens was a lot of fun. One thing I learned about most of the San Jacinto summits is that certain flanks are protected by a moat of manzanita filling all the gaps between boulders. Each needs to be approached on a side free of manzanita. I found an abandoned camp site and fire pit directly south of Newton Drury. Deer Springs has a pretty good flow over the trail right now. The forested flat area between Marion and Newton Drury is something out of a dream. Idyllic!

I don't have much new to add to what has already been documented here, but I did create a fun photosphere from the Marion summit. You can look 360 in any direction with your mouse and even zoom in and out with mouse wheel:

https://goo.gl/maps/pCQHeb3VEfo

[Sally]

Thank you for the view from Marion. That is super neato the way the pano works. I have never been to the tippy-top. I may be able to get up there on the summit block, but not so sure that I could get back down. We need to get a register on top of Joyce Peak.

[Norris]

Hi tekewin,thanks for the great TR! Thought you would like to know, the true Deer Springs drainage has a brush-free route to Marion Mtn. The drainage with the running water which crosses the trail is not the Deer Springs drainage. Most refer to that as "Bed Springs". Deer Springs has been dry this year. On your way down, some distance below Bed Springs, you may have noticed a blue and red hose running up the hill above the trail, on the uphill side of a dry gully. That is a water supply that the rangers have set up for a trail camp which they operate near the Deer Springs drainage. If you go up the left side of the true Deer Springs drainage (shown on the USGS topo), and cross the gully at an obvious point shortly after you leave the trail, you encounter an area of ferns and other water loving plants, with a large dead log running through it. After you cross this, you come to clean rock and pine needle duff and can follow this all the way up to the flat area below Marion.

[tekewin]

Hey Norris and Sally,

Thanks for the tips. I remember the blue and red hose. I didn't pick the best place to leave the trail and wasted time and energy on the way up. Still a lot for me to learn about the area. I thought I'd post a few photos of St. Ellens since I didn't find that many online...


Looking up at St. Ellens from the saddle


Nearing the summit


St. Ellens sign and register box


Cool purple register


St. Ellens on the left from the Marion summit

[Hikin_Jim]

Hi tekewin,thanks for the great TR! Thought you would like to know, the true Deer Springs drainage has a brush-free route to Marion Mtn. The drainage with the running water which crosses the trail is not the Deer Springs drainage. Most refer to that as "Bed Springs". Deer Springs has been dry this year. On your way down, some distance below Bed Springs, you may have noticed a blue and red hose running up the hill above the trail, on the uphill side of a dry gully. That is a water supply that the rangers have set up for a trail camp which they operate near the Deer Springs drainage. If you go up the left side of the true Deer Springs drainage (shown on the USGS topo), and cross the gully at an obvious point shortly after you leave the trail, you encounter an area of ferns and other water loving plants, with a large dead log running through it. After you cross this, you come to clean rock and pine needle duff and can follow this all the way up to the flat area below Marion.

I'm pretty sure that it's the California Conservation Corps (CCC) that has set up that major encampment at Deer Springs. I believe the rangers, had they set up the encampment, would have been a lot more LNT. The CCC crew made terraces, fire pits, trails across the meadow, water lines, etc. There's a lot of abandoned junk down in there too. They came back last summer after letting the gear overwinter, but now it's summer again, and I didn't see any signs of recent habitation when I was there July 4th. Now, the gear is a largely a pile of ruined junk.

It kind of rubs me the wrong way that they've told hikers not to camp there for years (50 years?) because it was a "sensitive area" and then they allow the CCC to go in and build a major encampment. At least they turned the "no camping; sensitive area" sign face down.

As far as routes to Marion Mountain are concerned, I've taken the liberty of sketching some out: http://caltopo.com/m/1J35
I've given each route a name, none of these names are official in any way.

• The Owl's Hooch Route. By far the easiest route is the Owl's Hooch Route. I call it Owl's Hooch because it starts at the Owl's Hooch campsite in LRV. From there it goes over Newton Drury Saddle and then contours over to Marion. Easy peasy, no brush to speak of.
• The Norris Route, so called because Norris is the person who described it, goes up the Deer Springs drainage. Per Norris, this is a good route with minimal brush.
• The HJ Route, so called because I'm the only person I know who has done it and for lack of a better term, goes from Deer Springs Crossing but goes up the dry drainage to the south of the Deer Springs drainage. Minimal brush, pretty easy going, a little less steep than the Deer Springs drainage.
• The Ridge Route. I haven't done this entirely, but a lot of people go up the Marion Mountain Trail and just start heading straight up the ridge to Marion Mountain. Reportedly, this is a good route.
• The "Don't Go There Route". I tried dropping down the Middle Fork of Stone Creek a couple of weeks ago. Fail. Really bad brush and very large boulders. It was ugly. And no water. I finally had to bail out of the canyon and go north.
• The Wellman Cienega Route. There are a couple of lines that if you take them can avoid the worst of the brush. I haven't found a line yet that avoids all brush, but reportedly there is one.
• The Hidden Jean Route. Well, this isn't a Marion Mountain Route, but it's in the same area. I have been told by reliable sources that there is a nearly brush free way down from Jean somewhere over there that descends to Wellman Divide. I sure wasn't able to find it when I tried a year or so ago.

HJ

[tekewin]

HJ,

Thanks for the route map. I started just north of the Norris route and got waist deep into soft, but unpleasant vegetation. I slogged through it from about 9200' to 9500' before moving south of the Norris route. It cleared out and the rest of my route was in between the Norris and HJ routes, putting me at the saddle just south of St. Ellens.

http://caltopo.com/m/0K0J

[Hikin_Jim]

Except maybe for the brush in the beginning, your route looks like a good ascent route to Marion and vicinity. And your exit route via Newton Drury looks basically like what I'm calling the "Owl's Hooch Route" although it looks like you cut more directly down from Newton Drury than I usually do. QUESTION: Was there water in the Deer Spgs drainage where you crossed it en route to Ellen, Marion, etc.?

The forested flat area between Marion and Newton Drury is something out of a dream. Idyllic!

Isn't it though? The summit plateau area of the San Jacintos is one of my favorites in all of Southern California.

HJ

[tekewin]

QUESTION: Was there water in the Deer Spgs drainage where you crossed it en route to Ellen, Marion, etc.?

Just a trickle. The drainage was damp, but it wasn't flowing. You might find a few tiny pools here and there, but I wouldn't count on it.

I followed cairns down from Drury until I ran into an unnamed trail that dumped me out directly at the Owl's Hooch sign.

[Hikin_Jim]

I followed cairns down from Drury until I ran into an unnamed trail that dumped me out directly at the Owl's Hooch sign.

Yep, that's it. That's what I call the Owl's Hooch route. It uses the trail to Owl's Hooch Campsite as the means of getting from the Deer Springs Trail to the base of Newton Drury. You don't go all the way to the campsite; you break off to the SSE before you get to the campsite. That's by far in my opinion the easiest way onto the summit plateau of the San Jacintos.

HJ