8/13/14 A training hike with Dustin for an upcoming backpacking trip. We summitted San Jacinto via the Marion Mtn trail. 12 miles round trip, around 4,300' of gain, with fully weighted backpacks, up to almost 11,000' elevation. A great day!
1 Heading out on the Marion Mtn trail. Roughly 40lbs in our pack on a beautiful day with temps in the 70s. A little cooler than lower elevations where it was almost 100.
2 Once you get past the first couple miles, this trail gets steep and technical! All of the knee high steps with the packs on are definitely a workout.
3 Great views of the valley below.
4 Not much water in this extremely dry year, but there are still occasional wet patches with plenty of green.
5 Lunch time.
6 How do you make-up for not having 5 days of food with you? A couple 6lb dumbells will do the trick!
7 Made it to the shack below the summit.
8 There's been some cleanup work done since I was here last.
9 Dustin on the summit!
10 Only one other pair of people on the summit while we were there. Just in time to take a picture for us.
11 Traditional picture of the summit marker at 10,834'.
12 Though I have pictures from several different trips up here, I can't help taking a few more.
13 Lake Hemet in the distance. It looked ike we might actually get a quick thunderstorm, but it stayed dry all day.
14 Looking down into the valley on the Palm Springs side.
15 The edge of Palm Springs.
16 Palm Springs and cities to the North. Hard to believe the C2C route starts from all the way down there.
17 The obligatory 360 summit video.
18 Dustin taking in the view. It's 4:30pm and time to head back down.
19 Heading back down through Little Round Valley.
20 Great hazy views as the sun gets low. It's becoming clear that we'll be in the dark before we finish today.
21 Amazing sunset! And yes, that's really what it looked like.
22 The last hour was in increasing darkness. We made it almost the whole way without headlamps, but finally put them on for the last 1/2 mile or so. We finally made it back to the trailhead in complete darkness. An exhausting day but an excellent training session for the next backpacking trip!