Devil's Slide Trail and Deer Springs Trails Conditions

[muttdog]

Hello to everyone on the board. I am visiting San Diego and would like to enjoy another hike up San Jacinto on 15 and/or 22 March. In Dec I went up the Deer Springs Trail and also hiked the Palm Springs Side Long Valley Trail.
I would like to try the Devil's Slide Trail since I have never taken that one and I have heard it has a lot of nice views. My questions are:
1. What are the trail conditions like on D. Slide Trail going all the way to San Jacinto IF that is possible depending on snow/ice and depending on if that can be done as a single day hike this time of year?
2. Are the D. Slide Trail conditions good enough to go to Tahquitz Peak as a 2nd choice?
3. As an alternate route up San Jac, does anyone know the conditions on Deer Springs Trail?

I consider myself an amateur hiking in snow so I want to stay safe and enjoy some winter hiking and see how far I can get.

Thanks for any information.

Mark

[KathyW]

I'm tentatively planning on hiking to San Jacinto from Humber Park on March 22nd, so I might see you out on the trail. I'm assuming there will still be snow/ice at the higher elevations.

[Hikin_Jim]

I think the conditions are still questionable for an ascent of San J without ice axe and crampons.

The Devils Slide Trail is much lower, and I would think it's passable now, but I'd call the USFS (not State Park) ranger station if I were you and ask for latest conditions (unless someone posts something definitive here). In all cases, if you get to icy stuff and even a short fall might get you hurt, turn around and go somewhere else. You need to deal with the rangers anyway since you've got to get a permit to do the hike.

If the DST were undoable, the lower, S facing Deer Springs Trail should be open. It's roughly 14 miles RT to Wellman's Divide, most of it south facing and therefore clear. Actually, make sure you bring water since it will be sunny. There should be water available at Strawberry Cienega and possibly in the Willow Creek drainage.

If you do go up the DST, there are a lot of nice areas that you can access without going to SJ Peak.
-The view from the Wellman's divide area is very nice, ~10.5 mi. RT.
-You can take a nice long loop around Skunk Cabbage Meadow, including Chinquapin Flat.
-You can take a side trip to Tahquitz Peak. The north side of Tahquitz will probably have some snow. If it's icy, I'd bail out and go through little Tahquitz and Tahquitz valleys.

Another alternative to the DST that should be relatively snow free is to do Tahquitz Peak via the S ridge trail, 8 mi RT. It's pretty exposed for most of the route, and it should be pretty snow free, although as you approach the top, you may run into snow. If it's icy, that's your turn around point. There's a fire lookout on top. It's fun to sit on the deck of the fire look out and eat lunch while taking in the view. By the way, there's a reason they put the look out on this peak. Pretty good views as I recall.

For your reference: http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/636/files ... oSPmap.pdf

[fleetparadox]

Hi there (my first post).

I'm also planning a backpacking trip up Devil's Slide for some friends and myself. We're starting on 3/24 and are also desperately curious about the snow/ice conditions during that time.

We don't have any crampons/ice axe equipment so this would be a critical element of the trip.

[KathyW]

I'll report back on what I find out there on the 22nd. I hope to get all the way up to the summit of San Jacinto, but I'm moving pretty slow right now due to some hip pain I'm stuggling with.

[fleetparadox]

Hope you enjoy your hike Kathy.

Hopefully the conditions will be good enough for your hip and my inexperienced group.

Thanks.

[muttdog]

Thanks everyone for the advice and information. I may drive to Idyllwild in the morning and see what the trails are like. I may go part way from the Humber Park area just to check it out then I may take the South Ridge Trail to Taq Peak. Everything also depends on what the weather does tomorrow.

[Tim Le]

I went up the Devil's Slide Trail today. I wanted to go all the way to San Jacinto but only managed to get to within a mile of Wellmans Divide.

The conditions were more treacherous than I expected. There are patches of snow along the trail starting about 1 mile in and 6,900 ft. It's very hard packed, crusty snow. In the morning it was passable without crampons but by the afternoon it got really slick. At 7,700 ft I came to a snow field and put on my crampons because the trail appeared to be wiped out by all sorts of debris from falling trees. I climbed straight up the hill to pick up the trail again. From then on it continued to alternate between patches of snow and dirt, which was annoying to walk with crampons but I didn't feel like taking them off. After leaving Saddle Junction and topping out at 9,000 ft on the PCT, it finally became a continuous snow field. Up there the snow was the same: hard packed and crusty. I couldn't find any recent tracks up there at all. I've never done this trail before so I wandered around a bit trying to find the way to Wellman's Divide. By 1pm I had reached my turnaround time so I turned back since a storm was coming.

It was pretty windy and the air temperature was 25°F. Ceiling was just above 9,000 ft. I didn't see anyone until near the end of my hike. I came down at around 3:30p and passed two parties of 3 equipped hikers just starting to go up. Seemed like a really late start, especially with the storm approaching, but I hope they'll be alright.

I think crampons are definitely needed just to make it to Saddle Junction. There are a couple of very narrow traverses over very steep slopes where a slip and fall would probably rocket you right into the trees below.

[Hikin_Jim]

Tim: Thanks for the near real time data.
Mark: Sounds like you should skip the Devil's slide trail. I would call the USFS ranger station in Idyllwild and ask about conditions on the Deer Springs trail. It's got a lot of southern exposure, and I think you should be able to go up it to Strawberry junction and then turn right and head toward the junction with the trail coming down from Wellman's divide. I doubt that you can get all the way to the 2nd jct, but you should be able to get in some good miles before snow/ice indicates that it's time to turn around.

As I recall, there are a lot of nice views of Tahquitz Peak, Lily Rock, and the greater Idyllwild. I think Deer Sps to Strawberry juncuntion and then going East would be your best bet in the San Jacintos right now. You could also go further south as well.

[KathyW]

New snow on icy snow for next weekend - sounds challenging.