Hello Fellow Hikin Fools,
On Saturday, July 2, my buddy Brent, his girlfriend Teresa and I did San Jacinto summit via the Marion mountain trail. At 4700 feet elevation gain in 6 miles it's the steepest ascent on the west side of the mountain. We got a late 9:30am start and it was getting hot. The bugs were a real nuisance, even after applying Deet up the ying yang (not literally). We all brought mosquito Head nets, but Brent & I were too macho to actually wear them. Teresa said hers worked wonderfully in keeping the gnats & flies at bay. As long as we kept moving it wasn't too bad.
The Marion Mountain trail is really steep which I don't mind until the downhill portion. The streams were flowing so we would splash water over our heads & arms to cool down. At
Little Round Valley a couple snow banks provided cooling ice to place under our hats. AAhhh....Natures air conditioning!
The summit was crowded but beautiful. We hung out on the north side for about 1/2 hour. There were some really cool gliders swooping above us for a while. Sounded like UFO's as they streaked by at about 100 feet above our heads! Really cool! A few minutes later, a big cargo type military helicopter buzzed the peak (see photos). We could clearly see the side door crew waving hello to us.
Heading down the mountain was tougher for me than the uphill because it would be really easy to sprain an ankle coming down Marion Mountain Trail. Maybe next time I'll try coming back via Deer Springs or Devil's Slide.
Anyway, It was an awesome day on a beautiful mountain with good friends. Can't wait to get up there again!
Here are some photo's of the trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1175322595 ... buB1IW5WQ#
Have Fun out There!
