Marion Trail visible?

[Jaime]

Is the Marion Trail visible and easy to follow. New to Mt San Jacinto. Gratelly appreciate any experianced comments.

Thank you,
Jaime

[mtbphoto]

I found it very easy to follow, there are a few trail junctions, but they are clearly marked, bring a map and you should be fine.

[Hikin_Jim]

I found it very easy to follow, there are a few trail junctions, but they are clearly marked, bring a map and you should be fine.

I believe he may be inquiring about snow. Have you been on that trail recently?

[Jaime]

Thanks for the info. I do have a map and compass. I've seen ariel photographs and I see lots of trees, tought it might get disorienting. The snow is some of a concern as far as following the trail, but I dought it will snow any time soon to cover the tracks, however I'm taking crampons for the spring melt/freezing of snow.

Any tips or warnings?

Thanks,

[Tim Le]

The last Marion Mtn report on here was by Mountaingoat on 4/13/08:

http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=809

It's been a month so it's hard to say how much is snow is left. Not a lot of people go on that trail and even fewer report conditions on this forum.

The Marion Mtn trail is easy to follow if there is no snow. But if there is snow above Little Round Valley and you've never been on that trail before, it's very hard to follow because you're in a flat area and it's hard to find where it starts to switchback up the east side of the ridge. I remember my first time ever on San Jacinto was around this time of year a few years ago and Little Round Valley was full of snow. I had a map, compass and GPS but forgot to input the waypoints and I didn't have topo data loaded in the GPS. Without that data the GPS was pretty much useless other than recording my track. So I took several bearings with the compass and tried to triangulate my position on the map but this is only so accurate. Not sure why I didn't just plot the GPS coordinates on the map, LOL. I searched for an hour looking for the way up to the peak from Little Round Valley but could not find it. Turns out I was just 100 ft or so west of where I needed to be. If you have a GPS, I highly recommend loading it with waypoints from a route drawn in TOPO and topo data of the area. With that, it should be no problem to navigate up to the peak. If you don't have TOPO, email me and I'll send you a GPX of the trail.

My guess is that you might be alright and will be able to follow the trail but it's good that you're bringing crampons. I'd bring an ice axe too.

[Allan Bartlett]

I went up it today. There is a lot of logging/brush clearing going on around the trail entrance and it took me a few minutes for to figure out where the trailhead was from the Marion campground. Once going up, the trail was pretty easy to follow. It's also ducked quite a bit on the iffy sections. I didn't make it to the peak however because of some big blisters that were starting to form on my feet. I headed back down after I made it to about 9200 ft. This was my first attempt at this peak and my first big Whitney training hike. In hindsight I need to make better use of my moleskin. I had plenty of energy to make it to the peak I felt. It sucked to have to turn around.

[zippetydude]

If you got to 9200' still feeling good, you were doing well. Sorry to hear about the blisters - I've had more than a few adventures cut short by things like that.

Hey, did you run into snow along the trail, or was it essentially clear? I'm especially curious about the upper elevations, as I'm hoping to take the PCT from Snow Creek up and over, then down the tram, and I want to wait until all the snow is gone.

z

[Allan Bartlett]

Once I reached the trail junction at about 8500 ft, I started to run across some snow going across certain sections of the trail. I had poles so it wasn't to bad and there were tracks already made through deeper parts. I'm not sure how the trail was after that because I had to turn around. I plan on getting an earlier start than 7am the next time I try this route.

[Jaime]

Thanks for all the information. We are planning on hiking the trail this weekend, but might have to cancel due to possible thunderstorms and lightning in the area. We hope the weather forecasters are wrong. I'll post a report on our attempt this comming monday.

Jaime