So I decided my San Jacinto hike was going to be Cactus to Clouds. First of all, my legs weren't recovered from my Sunday double, Mt Wilson and Mt Baldy. Also, I didn't expect snow and ice on parts of the upper trail. Both these reasons and the fact it's Cactus to Clouds, one of the toughest hikes in the country, made it a much longer hike day than I expected. I hiked the last mile to the peak and back to the tram in the dark. I debated turning back when I knew Id be in the dark with a thin layer of snow and ice on parts of the trail but I've done SanJac Tram to Peak about a dozen times before and with my sticks, headlamp and Alltrails downloaded, I was confident I could safely complete the peak. Keeping three points of contact on the snowy sections saved me from two falls from slips. Cactus to clouds is no joke and having done it twice now im retiring the whole trail and hitting either Museum to Tram or Tram to Peak from now on.