Here’s my trip report for San Jacinto on Saturday, 5/2/2016.
We left San Diego at 5:30AM and arrived at the trailhead at about 7:20AM. The conditions at the base were very foggy and cold, say 50ish degrees F. We hit the Marion trail at 7:30AM and like the description of this trail says, it is straight up. The first third of this trail is the steepest so keep that in mind. Also, the beginning can be a bit confusing from a signage perspective. We lost the trail once.
Once you complete the first steep third of the trail, I won’t say it’s a cakewalk, but let’s just say it gets easier. You pass a couple of streams, you hike on the PCT for half a mile, hit Little Round Valley campground… all the while going up and up and up.
The trail conditions were perfect. Bits of snow, even large sections of snow, but we did not break out the micro-spikes for any of it, nor did anyone else on the trail. Hiking shoes of any type will do. The trail is well marked in these areas from dirt being rubbed into the snow from many trudging feet.
As we gained elevation, the fog cleared up and we had some nice views from a few vistas.
Eventually, we made the final turn to go up to the peak and found the little shack near the peak. We then took the scramble to peak. We got there at 12:30PM, so 5 hours up. The peak was chilly and scattered fog/clouds beneath us obscured the view of the valley below. We stayed for about 20 minutes and headed down.
The first two thirds of the downhill trudge were great on my knees, a gentle incline that did not hurt my torn ACLs, but the last third definitely took a bit of a toll as the step downs are larger and the grades steeper. Despite this, I would still do this hike again. As we descended the fog packed in tighter and tighter to the point where it was like swimming in pea soup. But that also made it interesting on the way down.
We got back to trailhead at about 4:15PM, so a little over 3 hours to make the return. We ate at Arriba’s afterwards. Unfortunately, I do not recommend this place. Pretty blah. I am a vegetarian, so take this review with a grain of salt I suppose.
Overall, I consider this hike a great training hike for the Mountaineer’s Route for Mt Whitney. Great constant elevation gain, high altitude, cold. I thinks it’s a great simulation of your first day on the Mountaineer’s Route if you plan to do it in two days, like we hope to if the weather ever gets better…
