Trip report by Sister Sally
On Easter Sunday Ellen and I went on a hunt for the elusive San Jacinto Easter Bunny. We were able to board the 8:00 Palm Springs tram and checked in with the Long Valley Ranger Station for a backcountry permit. Our first objective was to see if the Easter Bunny was lurking on Jean Peak, so we headed up there. No Easter Bunny up there , but I had brought some “Robin’s Eggs” Easter candy to snack on and we decided to have dinner up there and spend the night. It was a lovely evening until the wind picked up and disrupted our sleep. On Earth Day, we slept in a while until it warmed up a bit. It was a little late when we emerged from our tents, so we scrapped our plans of exploring the area around Marion Mountain and other attractions. After breaking camp we headed towards San Jacinto Peak in snowshoes. After encountering several obstacles we got out of the snowshoes and gave it a try with microspikes. We were overwhelmed with joy to make it to the hut, but some strange weather system was moving in and we decided to hot-foot it down off the mountain instead of bagging San J Peak. The snow was funky and we made a few adjustments in our traction footwear. I was quite happy to make it back to Tamarack, and doubly elated when it started snowing lightly. (The weather forecast I had checked before the trip said that Monday would be sunny, oops). We took the Sid Davis Route back to the tram and took the next car down so we could scarf down a delicious meal at Las Casuealas.
Looking back towards San Jacinto as we're heading up to Jean.
View towards Marion from our camp site.
Sister Sally chilling at camp.
Shadow of San Jacinto over the Coachella valley at sunset.
Looking towards Marion at sunset.
Looking west at sunset.
Alpine glow over Marion.
Alpine glow over the Coachella valley.
Sunset.
Earth day morning view from our campsite.
As Sally noted, the wind really picked up on Sunday night. I also discovered that my Big Agnes Q-core had a leak, thus eliminating cushioning as well as insulation from the cold
Thank goodness Sally had a Z-rest pad she was able to loan me. Her X-Ped mattress worked well, though she would have been more comfortable with the Z-rest and the X-Ped mattress. Miles of smiles,
Ellen
