4 July 2020
Junction Meadow to San Jacinto Peak to Humber Park
(13 miles, +3,300/5,000 feet).

Last night was REALLY warm!  I couldn’t get comfortable because it was about 60, too cold without a bag and too warm with.  We were planning to stay one more night, but we decided towards the end of the day to go ahead and head home this evening.

Today we did something together that we have each done separately: climb San Jacinto Peak!  It’s a pretty straightforward climb, all trail, and we got a good and early start.

We stopped at a wonderful meadow called Wellman’s Cienega and saw many wonderful flowers.

We also saw a deer!  It was literally like the deer Marisa Tomei described in My Cousin Vinny:

There were lots of tall old trees in route.

We set up our camp chairs and took a nice long break at Wellman’s Divide.

We then arrived at the summit.  It was full of bros who had hiked in from the other side, somewhat spoiling the solitude we had enjoyed for the morning.  But it’s such a lovely spot it’s hard to ruin the mood.

I had originally thought about possibly hiking over to Mount Jean to the south of San Jacinto, but it looks VERY talus-y.  I’ll come back and maybe do that one another time.

We got back down to base camp mid-afternoon and with just 2.5 miles all downhill to the car, we decided to go ahead and head home to showers and a comfy bed.

This trip worked really well for both of us and I hope to use it as a model for future trips together.  I just need a warmer-weather sleeping bag!  🙂