| Peak | San Jacinto |
|---|---|
| Group | N/A |
| Trailhead | Marion Mountain |
I hiked San Jacinto on the Marion Mountain trail on Sunday, 9/10/17. I woke up early and made the long drive up to Idyllwild. It was dark and I kept second-guessing myself so I got a little lost finding the State Park Headquarters to pick up my permit. Once I made it there, I felt a little silly because it was right off of the highway and not hard to find. I filled out the permit form and departed for the trailhead. Once again, I second-guessed myself and turned in the wrong direction. I finally got my head cleared and turned around before I was too far out of the way. I finally arrived, although a little later than I had wanted to, and hit the trail a little after 7am. There were a few other hikers, which was nice since I was hiking solo. The trail is beautiful. I love hiking in forests and it helped distract me a bit from the steep switchbacks that seemed to go on and on. Thankfully, the weather was perfect for hiking. It wasn’t hot or cold. I was certainly sweating, but it was from exertion instead of heat. I kept a slow and steady pace and only stopped periodically to drink water. I passed a work crew doing trail maintenance and said hello and thanked them for their work. I assume they were part of the Pacific Crest Trail Association. They were working in what I thought was the most scenic part of the entire trail. I continued my ascent but I was getting hungry. I didn’t want to stop because the weather had called for strong winds later in the day. I figured I would take a lunch break at the summit. I struggled my way up and finally made it to the peak at 11am. I took a few photos and sat down to eat lunch. Unfortunately the winds had already picked up enough that it wasn’t pleasant for me to stick around. So off I went for the long descent back to my car. I headed down and the wind immediately calmed. I ended up taking a quick lunch break by the stream running through Little Round Valley. It was a beautiful spot and I definitely needed to eat something to fuel the effort to finish the trail. I continued on my way and found that the trail felt really long on the way back. I had to carefully make my way to avoid tripping over rocks or falling down. My feet starting killing me and my legs started to ache. I found that most of the way back I was alone on the trail. I really wanted to be done. I was so glad to look down from the trail and see the Marion Mountain campground below and know I was almost finished. By that time, the campground had emptied out and everything was quiet. I made it back to my car and quickly pulled off my shoes to switch them for flip flops. I was back on the road headed home by 2:30pm.
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