Water update?

[Fred]

Nice meeting you jfr on Saturday, glad you had the Ten essentials with you. It was a beautiful day with great views and less people since the Tram was closed.
And as always looking forward to your trip report.

[Hikin_Jim]

Don't forget to check out Hikin' Jim's interactive Map of the San Jacinto Mountains as I used his terminology here. His rating for water sources goes from I (least reliable) to V (perennial).

An aside to Jim: Looks like Joyce Spring should be rated a "III" rather than a "II" - at least this year. The "other" Wellmans Cienega that had water was on what one might call the "South Fork" of Willow Creek, on the map's marshy section directly south of the "C" in Cienega, at about elevation 9180 or so.

Was the water actually "usable" at Joyce Spring? When last I was there, about a year and a half ago, there was only enough water to fill my Sierra cup after a few seconds, which I would then pour into a bladder for treatment. After a certain point, I kind of downgrade a water source from "spring" to "seep" mentally. But that's good to hear.

When I was at Lower Bed Springs, Upper Bed Springs last July 4 weekend, things were flowing marvelously. Rock and Lilly were flowing, but not much. Lilly is the closest to LRV (LRV is really really dry), but it's not all that easy to get water from. It's only another 10 min to Bed Springs Crossing where the gathering is easy.

That's interesting that Wellmans Cienaga had some water. I poked around there the first weekend in August and could find little more than one nearly unusable runnel and a muddy little puddle not much bigger than my foot. I had to descend the canyon quite a ways before I found water with good flow. There was a little water in one spot below Wellmans Meadow, but it wasn't until much further down that I found decent water.

HJ

[Huck Outdoors]

I'll have an update of water sources along the Marion Mt Trail after this weekend.