Snow Creek Trail and some peaks 6/8/13 (trip report)

[eric1234]

Last month I hiked the Snow Creek Trail (S2S) to San Jacinto Peak and checked out two others along the way: Black Mountain and the highpoint of One Horse Ridge (which I referred to as "One Horse Peak"). S2S is a highly enjoyable trail with scenery thats not found in any other part of the San Jacintos.

http://peaksforfreaks.blogspot.com/2013 ... n-san.html

[Hikin_Jim]

Wow, heckuva trip. Can't believe you went off on a side trip to the Black Mtn Lookout on top of all that.

HJ

[arocknoid]

Another fabulous trip and report. Your extensive writeups are much appreciated, as the effort can seem nearly as laborious as the jaunt itself. (that's my excuse for trail-writer's block ;-)

That is a strenuous itinerary, much more so with the heat/ barely beat.

Did you have any trouble with parking at Snow Creek (if you did a car shuttle vs. dropoff)?

Hot sunrise pic:



eric1234 sez:

There was the familiar bustling of tram riders, and of course, the familiar "SQUIRREL!" uttered by a kid who had just gotten off the tram and didn't expect to see such a creature.

Shhh! That's Hikin' Jim in deep cover:



thanks again for the TR,
arocknoid

[eric1234]

For parking, we parked on the road right before the "private property" and "wildlife refuge" signs. Several groups had parked there before, and none of them had been bothered as long as they left their cars before the private property sign. There is a pullout on the left side of the road that can fit about 3 good sized vehicles. Coordinates (lat/lon) 33.893765, -116.682985

We left two cars at the tram station parking lot and shuttled from there.

Shhh! That's Hikin' Jim in deep cover

My deepest apologies Jim, I will nut say more.

[Hikin_Jim]

Shhh! That's Hikin' Jim in deep cover

Well, actually, I typically like to hide in pint defilade in the tram bar when I do my deep cover work, but ...

OK, now I'm sure nobody cares about the proper trail names but me, but here goes. Take a look at this graphic:

The Deer Springs Trail (in red) goes all the way from Idyllwild up to the saddle just S of San Jacinto Peak where it meets the trail to the peak coming up from Wellman Divide (light blue). The Deer Springs Trail is the major trail on the west side of the San Jacintos summit massif. I'm not sure why there's some confusion with the Marion Mountain Trail, but the Marion Mountain Trail (solid green line) is basically a fairly short trail that takes one to the jumping off point of the logical XC route to Marion Mountain (dotted green line).

Now, if you were to say "I took the Marion Mountain Trail to San Jacinto peak," everyone would know what you mean, but of course you'd be taking the Deer Springs Trail for a substantial portion of the route plus a short segment of trail to the peak from the little saddle on the south side of the peak.

Is that helpful? Does anyone care? Hikin' Jim just loves maps I guess.

Full Color key:
Red -- Deer Springs Trail
Yellow -- Fuller Ridge Trail
Light blue -- Peak trail from Wellman Divide
Black -- Tamarack Trail (abandoned)
Lavender -- Seven Pines Trail
Green -- Marion Mountain Trail (solid portion) and XC route to Marion Mountain (dotted portion)
White -- Strawberry trail
Dark blue -- Trail from Saddle junction to Wellman Divide
Silver -- Devil's Slide Trail

HJ

[eric1234]

Thanks HJ for bringing up the subject.

When I wrote a previous trip report for the area, it was referred to as the "Deer Springs Trail junction" because thats what it said on the TOPO map. A few days later, I received several emails with people saying that they knew the trail as the Marion Mountain Trail. Thinking that it was a local thing or widely accepted, I changed it to "Marion Mountain Trail Junction aka. Deer Springs Trail." Ive changed it back to "Deer Springs Trail" because thats what the TOPO map refers to it as. And HJ is far more of a local to the area than I am.