San J, Jean & Marion from Humber Park

[hvydrt]

I would like to add Jean and Marion to my hike to San J from Humber Park. Anyone done this? It seems you could come down off of Marion and catch the trail somewhere near where the split from the PCT towards Wellmans divide? Also, how is the XC from San J to Jean, and then from Jean to Marion? Thick brush?

See trip report below.

[Norris]

The way I did it (years ago) was via Deer Springs Trail, not Humber park. You start from the 246 just outside of Idyllwild. You climb San J then when you get back to the saddle, instead of going back down to Little Round Valley, go X-country traverse to Jean. Then same thing again to Marion. Then x-country down from Marion to the drainage that produces the water across the trail you passed just below LRV. Down the drainage back to the Deer Springs trail, then back to the 246. Long day, but worth it.

[phydeux]

I've only done the Marion-Jean-San J traverse in mid-winter starting from the Tram. Deep snow makes it easy to snowshoe over the rocks and brush. Never done it in the summer; that might be pretty nasty stuff to get through.

[Hikin_Jim]

I did Jean and Marion from San Jacinto last July. Beautiful hike; I highly recommend it. It's generally class two. Brush isn't the problem, rock is. You might have to do a few class three moves depending on your route finding.

The navigation from Jean to Marion is a bit tricky because you can't keep Marion in sight due to the trees and there is no obvious terrain feature to follow. If you know how to walk a compass bearing, it's not too bad. The actual peak of Marion is hard to pick out; there are multiple summit blocks near the top. The real summit block is class three. Don't have any pix cause my camera battery died that day. The SJ topo map with it's stupid 80' contour intervals isn't much help in picking out the real summit.

From the summit, we backtracked a bit north to the low spot between Marion and the unnamed bump on the S ridge of Jean. From there we went down toward Wellmans Cienaga. Steep but doable.

Here's my trip report and map from last July: http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=990

[hvydrt]

Thanks for the info. Hiking Jim, looking at your Acme map it seems reasonable to decend directly to the trail from the summit. I am hoping to catch the trail further south than you did because I will be going the oppostie direction. Probably shoot for "P" on the map http://tiny.cc/TsapN or possibly the south ridge depending on how it looks. Like you said in your trip report, it might look good on the map, but in reality......

[ajwoodzy]

Check this out ---> http://www.summitpost.org/route/484827/east-face.html

[Hikin_Jim]

Check this out ---> http://www.summitpost.org/route/484827/east-face.html

Aren't there six peaks over 10K in the SJ's?

San Jacinto Peak
Jean Peak
Marion Mtn
Miller Peak
Folly Peak
Newton Drury Peak

Miller is a joke, but it is a named summit. Newton Drury only has about 160' of prominence, hardly a peak, but it is a named summit at least according to the CA Park Service; it's not named on the USGS map. Folly has even less prominence, perhaps 80', and is an indistinct hump on the W flank of SJ. For the purist, I suppose only SJ, Jean, and Marion are true peaks, and even Jean and Marion are cutting it close on the 250' prominence "rule" (250' is an arbitrary number, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere).

Anyway, whatever, enough hair splitting. (you'd be amazed at how seriously some peak baggers take this stuff)

Thanks for the info on the E face approach. I'll have to come up that way some time.

[ajwoodzy]

Check this out ---> http://www.summitpost.org/route/484827/east-face.html

Aren't there six peaks over 10K in the SJ's?

San Jacinto Peak
Jean Peak
Marion Mtn
Miller Peak
Folly Peak
Newton Drury Peak

Miller is a joke, but it is a named summit. Newton Drury only has about 160' of prominence, hardly a peak, but it is a named summit at least according to the CA Park Service; it's not named on the USGS map. Folly has even less prominence, perhaps 80', and is an indistinct hump on the W flank of SJ. For the purist, I suppose only SJ, Jean, and Marion are true peaks, and even Jean and Marion are cutting it close on the 250' prominence "rule" (250' is an arbitrary number, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere).

Anyway, whatever, enough hair splitting. (you'd be amazed at how seriously some peak baggers take this stuff)

Thanks for the info on the E face approach. I'll have to come up that way some time.

Alright, I think I'll have to fix that. Thank for the catch

haha I know I know...but just the fact that it has a name attached to it and that its a 10k SoCal peak makes me want to climb..I might be going back up there in the next few days to hit up Miller (it is getting on my nerves )

[hvydrt]

I did this hike on Saturday. Started at 5:30 and was back at the car at 1:30. Surprisingly, I had all 4 summits to myself. Once I got back near Saddle Junction there were people everywhere and Humber Park was packed.
Route finding was pretty simple and the area is free of any significant snow. I ended up climbing the Marion summit block from the west side, which was a little tricky but fun. Once on top I found the easier class 3 route on the north east side and took that down.
Thanks again for the info.
pictures and map are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/markspicccs/SanJacintoMillerJeanAndMarion?feat=directlink