Jean, San Jac, Miller Peaks 5-1-10

[skunkboy]

Howdy folks,

Just a quick note of a TR from yesterdays adventures. Rode the first tram car up with just five people in it, and left the tram at 8:15. Went to the ranger station, got my permit, straightened out my gear, did a few sit-ups and yoga stretches and off I went at 8:40. Started up the RV trail and kept my eye out for the fabled Sid Davis route. Not much snow until after you cross the creek, then it starts. Saw some boot prints and ski tracks heading up the canyon and started to follow these thinking this was the SD route. Very beautiful hiking with blue skies and little or no wind, which was a relief from four days of 30+ mph winds in Yucca Valley. The snow was firm and very pleasant to walk on. No crampons needed, just my trekking poles.

Much to my surprise was when I popped out at the eastern end of Round Valley. Hmmm, must not have been the SD route that I followed, but rather just paralleled the creek. Lots of snow everywhere. I hoofed it over to Tamarack and followed my compass in the general direction of where I wanted to go, which was the Miller-San Jac saddle. Here’s where my plans went awry. Just as Steve mentions in his SC post, one can’t just stare at maps and photos and hope that they know exactly where they should go. When you get out there you may find dense tree cover that obstruct your view of the surrounding terrain. You can also run into natural obstacles such as ridges and rock piles. This is exacerbated when there is no trail and you are blazing your own. All of this happened to me and kept forcing me west rather than northwest and lo and behold I found myself on the slopes of Jean Peak. Oh well, never been to Jean peak before.

As the terrain got stepper, I found that as I walked through the shady areas, they were very icy. Time to break out the ice ax and my new Petzl crampons and give them a test drive. (Thanks Ellen, Tina, and Steve for your crampon suggestions.) They were like four wheel drive for the trail. Everywhere I stepped, I felt confident that they would hold. Continued stomping up the slope and finally came out onto the ridge between Marion and Jean. Had to chop my way up a five foot headwall, but finally came out on Jean peak. What a nice place! Might want to camp out over there this summer. Anyway... continued along the ridge and at five minutes to two made it to the top of San Jac. I was the only one up there for about fifteen minutes, then Ken from Carlsbad came up and joined me. I shared one of my peanut butter and honey sandwiches with him , and we spent about a half hour enjoying the view that John Muir says is one of the best he had ever seen. Ken headed down and I continued to stuff food down my gullet and address the quarter sized blisters that my heavy mountain boots had inflicted on my heels. I rarely ever wear these boots anymore since being bit by the lightweight bug a year ago. My Hardrocks wouldn’t have been appropriate and I was weary of my lightweight Merrills since reading about people post-holing up to their necks in the “Chichory”. If I was going to post-hoe up to my neck, I wanted to have a good platform to land on. Have to say that I never post-holed farther than my ankles.

Anyway, at 3:00 I started down the “freeway” of tracks, and with a little detour, I did Miller Peak. Continued down the slope and entered the trees once more and promptly lost the trail somewhere between Tamarack and RV. Ran into a group of 8 or 10 people who were as off route as I and asked if I knew the way back to the tram. I told them to head off to the right and find RV, then they could get back that way. I told them it probably wasn’t a good idea to follow me cause I was heading off to the left, where I was hoping to find the elusive Sid Davis trail. Wandered down the ridge and came to a place where I could see the drainage where the SD probably came up to my left. To my right was the canyon where the RV trail came down, and after about fifteen minutes of down climbing, ran into the trail. After five minutes of hiking I was back to the creek crossing where I took off my crampons and stowed my ice ax.

Shortly thereafter, I was stomping up the concrete ramp to the tram, dodging the clueless pedestrians who were walking four abreast down the ramp and who evidently felt that I should get out of their way. The thought crossed my mind about taking my ice ax out and waving it above my head while bellowing obscene sea chanties at the top of my lungs. However, my tired brain thought better of this and continued on, and at 5:30, I hauled my whooped pup self into a bar stool. As I sat and guzzled a Fat Tire ale and watched the Cav’s and the Celts, I thought gee, civilization isn’t so bad after all.

[Hikin_Jim]

Nice TR. Sounds like a good day on the mountain. The SD route isn't bad to follow -- when there isn't snow.

Take a look at this map of the SD route. To my mind, the first trick occurs around point "A." You need to hug to the right before the trail crosses the creek. If you don't, the most obvious terrain to follow is outlined by points "B", "C", and "D" -- which pops you out at the eastern end of RV.

The second trick to the SD route is that fairly quickly you don't follow the drainage at all, but go further north taking a WNW'erly tack that every so slightly bows upward a tad more to the N as one advances W. Eventually, one (in the summer when there is no snow) can join up with an old trail that will connect one with the main trail coming in from Wellman Divide. I won't comment on winter routing since I haven't done the SD route in winter.

From the main trail, when one reaches the elbow of the switchback near Miller-SJ saddle, instead of switching back, one heads to the saddle and then follows the ridge to the summit of SJ, staying just slightly to the north of the spine of the ridge. There is an old trail here that was followable maybe as recently as 15 years ago but is now really hard to suss out. No matter as one simply follows the ridge up.

The above described route is the most direct route I know of to SJ Peak. However, Jean is a neat peak, and quite a bit less visited. I think Marion is even less visited still. There is a really neat forested area with flats between Jean and Marion that is really beautiful. I think the area between Marion and Jean is one of the most interesting in the SJ's.

Nice TR and thanks for sharing.

HJ

[skunkboy]

Jim,

Thanks for the Sid Davis info. I can see where I went wrong and hope to hit it this summer and do some further exploring. I knew about following the ridge route up to San Jac from the saddle with Miller. Its a beautiful way up to the peak, and is the way I came down. Also, I think you are the Acme Mapper Guru!

Skunk

PS. Thanks for that tip about the flats around Marion. Even more exploring potential!

[Vnthali]

Sounds kinda like what I did last weekend when Sally and I summited Jean Peak. I made the Sid Davis trip one time. What I learned then (and should have remembered) is to keep the Cornell Peak ridline in view for almost the entire route. Still sounds like your climb was a good time, depite the navigation issues.

[Ellen]

Howdy Skunk

Congratulations on your peak trifecta As you've seen from my San J trip reports, I've had navigational issues as well when going cross country in the snow

I've had the same feelings going up the concrete switchbacks and having to deal with tourist rush hour It is tempting to take out the ice-axe and clear a path

Along that line -- one day after San J I was pulling my gear out of my car's trunk when a solicitor walked up my drive way toward me. I shook my head "no." He kept walking toward me and started his spiel. I took out my ice-axe and vehemently shook my head "no." He finally got the message

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Hikin_Jim]

What? Your ice axe doesn't have the "cattle prod" option?

HJ

[tinaballina]

very nice tr

[abbadavis]

It is my pleasure that I got chance to read this hilarious story and I must say that the detail you have given here is really nice and interesting. I also start my day by doing yoga and pilates then I go for a jogging.