San Jacinto Marion Mountain Trail

I didn't realize that the Marion Mountain path up intersected with the Fuller Ridge trail that we took last year. So once again, we hiked through the "Pokey Narrows". Sharp thorns on both sides of a narrow trail, throw in some awkwardly places rocks and it makes for an interesting trek. Luckily it isn't too long. Since we hiked from the tram two weeks ago, and that route was only .5 miles shorter, I thought this hike wouldn't be so bad. But the first 2.3 miles up were very steep, as described in this web site. People called the trail a butt-blaster, but it was more of a quad-blaster on the way up and a knee-blaster on the way down. Add in 4800 feet of elevation gain and an extreem work-out hike it was.

We went slow on the ascent, that is why it took six hours to hike six miles. Our goal was to get Jim up to the summit for the first time, so we went at his pace. He was wearing a heart monitor, and whenever his pulse got above 160, we rested until it got down to 120. Last year we left him sitting on the switchbacks above Little Round Valley as bear food. The bears didn't get to him, luckily.



As you might expect, I had water issues. With only one liter for the hike down, I had to ration my water. In fact, all three of us ran out of water just before we got back to the truck. We had some Gatorade and water waiting for us which never tasted so good. The trail was very dusty on the last stretch, and I was in the rear breathing in all that dust. Now for the next week I'll rest my legs, drink plenty of fluids and be ready for Mt. Whitney.

On the way up, we encountered about eight Japanese adults being guided down the mountain. They all said "hi" to us and looked like they were doing well. On our way down the last two very steep miles, we saw the guide, Bob, hiking back up the hill. He said he lost three of his group. They somehow took a wrong turn at a junction and could have been on any number of trails. When we got to the trailhead, the group that made it down were waiting for their friends. It was 7:30 and getting dark. On the way out, we stopped at both range stations to give them a heads-up, but they were closed. I hope Bob found his missing hikers.