San Jac, Deer Springs, Strawberry trail loop, 6/24

[Florian]

After meeting Walt on Saturday at the tramway bar and hearing of his hike around the Strawberry trail i decided that was a loop i really wanted to do myself. So Wednesday i rode up the (very full) 10am tramcar and hiked over San Jacinto, down the west side through Little Round Valley and Deer Springs to the Strawberry Trail and back over Wellmans returning to the tram. What a great loop this is! Lovely flow of water in Little Round Valley and beautiful ferns along the Deer Springs trail. A bit long at 16.6 miles (based on map distances) for the late 10am tramcar. I would have much rather have started a couple hours earlier. It got a bit warm in mid-afternoon coming back up from Strawberry Junction.

Doing the peak last Saturday there were hundreds of hikers on the trails. Today i saw maybe half a dozen hikers between the tram and summit. From the summit all the way around Deer Springs and Strawberry trails back to Wellmans i didn't pass a single other hiker! Such a difference hiking on a weekday. But i did meet Doreen on my way down near Round Valley! She was doing a short afternoon hike to Wellmans and back. It was a pleasure to chat with her along the quiet trail.

Some photos here .. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fboyd/sets ... 55/detail/

The loop took me 6.5 hours getting back to the tram in time to catch the 5pm car down.

-Florian

[magikwalt]

I loved that hike. The 2 main differences I see that the direction of travel plays are the afternoon heat if going Strawberry Jct to Wellman's Divide or later in the hike having to deal with the west side climb up to the San Jacinto saddle.

Great photos. I am going to use them to try and convince Jean to come camping in LRV with me.

Thanks Florian!