San Jacinto Peak

Yesterday morning,  Kim and I took the tram up to hike San Jacinto Peak. This was an 11 mile hike from the tram. 

We stopped at the ranger station to get a permit and the ranger began telling us and another group, make sure to go left, and then right and then right, and on the way back don't stay past 4pm and make sure you take left or you'll end up 7,100 feet down the wrong side of the mountain and will have to hike back up and end up camping over night. Remember Wellman equals Wellness in my belly. And little Round Valley equals Little Bad Valley. 

We ran into a few guys, at the Wellman Divide, that came from the desert floor, which from the desert floor would have been 21.2 miles and they were beyond tired. We also ran into a few groups at the divide, that chose to hike in from Idyllwild and camp over night in round valley before the peak. From Idyllwild they said it was 8 miles, but when I look it up it says 18 🤷🏼‍♀️ okay. I'd say maybe it was 9 to Round Valley, but later, after we all got to the peak, they were heading back to Idyllwild for the night; so that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Anyway, if you recall, Friday we had some pretty insane wind. Okay, the whole week/month/ year we did; so I asked the group how it was camping the night before if there was wind up here. They said the night was miserable. Every single one of them. It dropped to 18° and the winds were probably 30 mph. I would cry. 

We continued hiking and about a mile later we came across the Palm Springs boys sprawled out across rocks dead to the world. They began their hike at 1am and by this time it was probably about 11am. We continued past them and they began to get up again. Next, we reached the last junction, where one of the group campers were resting. We looked at the sign and we were literally. 3 miles from the peak, so we continued. 

First we hit the shelter, which was like a little stone cabin with bunk beds inside. The rest of the way to the peak was a scramble. A military kid was trying to come down the rocks as I was coming up and he was flopping all over, so I waited not wanting to get sucked into that... mess. He had his phone in his hand and was literally almost/actually falling down every rock. I finally told him it looks like he has a pocket on his plaid shirt, maybe it would help placing your phone in there temporarily so you can use both your hands to get down🤷🏼‍♀️. He looked at me like I'd just walked on the moon and placed his phone in his pocket. Oh boy.. his friend just laughed. 

We hit the top and I saw this couple arm in arm taking in the view. I asked them if they had a camera and the girl looked at me hesitant and said she had her phone. I said, I'd love to capture this moment for you two if you don't mind. It's a beautiful view of you two in each other's arms looking out at the view. They gladly surrendered their phone. 

Overall, it was a beautiful clear day with very minimal wind. I think the highest it ever got was maybe 52°. I'd say a beautiful Saturday it was indeed.