20260107_San Jacinto Pk W-E Loop via Deer Springs TH
It was the last day of the week to head up to San Jacinto Peak in nice weather before the stronger winds were forecast. Going up Deer Springs early was cold enough for heavier gloves but the tradeoffs were great snow and the ice sculpted trees/understory. Heavier gloves but no traction aids all the way up with consistent snow coverage from just before Little Round Valley to the peak. Some areas of ice and flowing/standing water on the upper Deer Springs Trail but easy to bypass. Views off the summit were impressive, especially of Coachella Valley and San Gorgonio Mountain which looked heavily snow-capped. With absolutely no wind on the summit, it was hard to believe that gales were forecasted to start up in the late evening. After a small break, the only other hiker I’d see on the upper trails appeared on the summit and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was “Maria”, someone I’ve crossed paths with a handful of times over the last year on different SoCal peaks. After one last look at how much snow I would be dealing with on San Gorgonio next week, I spiked up for the Peak Trail descent as the cloud ceiling started dropping down. The east side was considerably warmer than Deer Springs but there were still occasional snowflakes starting to fall instead of rain. Wellman’s Cienega was flowing well between the icicles, providing for fast water filtering. Once on the Pacific Crest Trail, I was surprised to find it untracked all the way to Strawberry Junction. It was also interesting to see Strawberry Creek flowing across the PCT which I’ve seldom seen. After removing micro spikes here and heading down, the weather warmed up considerably but the rain held off. Recommend checking out the San Jacinto Trail Report (https://sanjacjon.com/) before heading out for up to date conditions as Jon King still hikes this area daily. Logged 18.4 mi /29.6 km & 5166 ft / 1574.6 m with Gaia