Marion Mountain Questions

[dstroot]

Ok - yesterday my plan was to hike up up Marion Mountain, summit Jan Jacinto Peak and then cruise around "up there", spend the night in little round valley and come down today. I've done it from the tram a couple times as a day hike and wanted the challenge of coming up Marion Mountain and also camping up there.

I assumed the trail was fairly well marked but for some reason I lost it - I came to a large boulder with a rock "shelf" to the right and a light path to the left. I went left and followed what I thought was the path and it petered out. I tried to head back to the trail but lost my way and ended up "off roading" down and made it out by Dark Canyon.

I feel kind of silly since I never lost a path before and I know the paths up top are pretty well worn and the lower part of Marion Mountain was very clear.

So what did I do wrong? Does Marion Mountain require a boulder scramble to get to the top? Did I just make a wrong turn? Any advice is welcome. Having to navigate down that slope with no trail and just a map and compass left me a little freaked out.

Cheers, Dan

[Wildhorse]

I think you just made a wrong turn. The final assent to San Jacinto would be the same boulder scramble as as ascent from the tram. If I am correctly reading your description, it sounds like you lost the trail before you got to that final assent of San Jacinto.

[Norris]

The trail was damaged in the recent heavy rains, so it is a bit harder to follow in places than normal right now. I have hiked it many times, including the last two weekends, and I noticed some confusing spots where you have to look around to not lose the trail. Compounding the problem is the (questionable, in my mind) practice of periodically re-routing trails even when there is no pressing need (such as a huge fallen tree). These old trails, barely disguised at times with branches and rocks, and can lead to further confusion as to which way to go. A good mapping GPS pre-loaded with a recently captured track solves these kinds of problems.

[Hikin_Jim]

I got off route on Marion Mountain a couple of weeks ago. Not as seriously as you, but it's not a well maintained trail.

How far did you get up? Did you make it to the meadow just before the Marion Mountain Trail dead ends into the Deer Springs Trail?

HJ

[dstroot]

Thanks - now I don't feel like such a complete doofus.

I didn't make the upper meadow. I got lost on a fairly steep section maybe 1.75-2.25 miles up. Since the lower trail was really easy to follow I was sort of expecting the whole trail to be easy to follow. I think I got on an older spur that petered out. I hiked around trying to pick up the trail again and that's when I got lost. I could see the ridge up top but frankly have not done a lot of off trail stuff so I decided the safer route was to go down - but that wasn't easy off trail. My fitbit said I did over eight miles which is pretty strange considering I was only a couple miles up the trail but I did have to do a lot of scrambling, backtracking and switchbacks to get down and then I had to hike back to my car.

I've done the boulder scramble to San Jacinto peak - that's pretty easy, you just keep going up until there is no more "up". In this case I thought If I kept going up off trail I might pick up one of the trails up along the ridgeline but I also thought I could get even more lost. All I've ever used before was a compass and map but given the trees it was hard to locate where I was exactly. Maybe it's time to invest in a GPS as suggested.

Thanks for the information everyone.

[bobmc]

This is a common mistake. As the trail begins to traverse the north face there is a sudden switchback. There is also a faint trail that continues straight and then peters out below a very large outcropping. You are supposed to be above the rock. If you have your nose to the trail it is very easy to miss the switchback. I missed it years ago. But managed to find the trail by scrambling straight up the slope for about 200 ft. Now i look for it.