Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

I put tags/descriptions on the photos, click HERE. We arrived at the trailhead at Angelus Oaks at 9pm friday, hiked past the wilderness boundry 2 miles in, threw down sleeping bags and crashed for the night. Set out at 7:00, through the exposed manzanita field to Limber Pine Bench. Set up camp, hiked 1/3 mile up to Limber Pine Spring to filter water, everone was dry! Spring flowing good and ice cold! Hit the peak for lunch, nice views of Jacinto and Gorgonio, headed down for dinner and sunset. Out 5.7 miles the next morning clearing some crown of thorn bushes (I HATE THESE THINGS!) along the way, someone's gotta do it. Trail was a nice steady incline, great hike 16 miles roundtrip! Cloudy near the top so it wasn't too hot either, we lucked out!

Hi, Rich,

Sounds like a nice hike. How did you like Limber Pine Bench as a camp site. It can get really windy there. Were the springs flowing well? I imagine that they would be.

RichMcG wrote:...hiked past the wilderness boundry 2 miles in, threw down sleeping bags and crashed for the night.

Not sure you want to publicize that too much since the SGW is a "designated sites only" area.

HJ

I was surprised how big Limber Pine was, lots of sites and it wasn't windy. The spring was flowing alright but I thought it would be gushing with the snowmelt. We tried to make it to Columbine Friday night, but were tired. We didn't set up camp but were 200 feet off the trail in a clearing, and we left no trace like good scouts!

RichMcG wrote:I was surprised how big Limber Pine was, lots of sites and it wasn't windy. The spring was flowing alright but I thought it would be gushing with the snowmelt. We tried to make it to Columbine Friday night, but were tired. We didn't set up camp but were 200 feet off the trail in a clearing, and we left no trace like good scouts!

Makes sense to me, Rich; just don't get caught.

In all seriousness, I have no idea if a fine or what would be imposed if you were caught overnighting outside of a permitted area. I guess it would also depend on who caught you. Some might look at what you're doing, realize that there was no real harm and let you go. Then there might be others who are really "by the book" that might write you up. I guess I could call the Mill Creek RS and ask.

HJ

For all the trail work we do, I hope they would be cool. We cleared a good 40 yards of nastiness from the trail! Unfortunately, I didn't have a pair of Florian clippers!!!