I packed my car this morning with my hiking gear and was ready go. My car is a Hyundai Elantra. At the last minute, I changed my mind and drove my truck. It's a 3/4 ton two wheel drive.

Black Mountain Trail/Road is a 7 mile drive from Hwy 243 to the campground. It took me between 45 minutes to and hour to drive the 7 miles. And, it took about 40/45 minutes to come back down. I do not recommend doing this drive with a car. You won't make! High clearance vehicles only. And, if its wet, 4 wheel drive only. I spun my wheels twice going up.

Once I made it to the campground, I grabbed my gear and hit the trail. My plan to go up 5 miles to the PCT/Deer Springs intersection and than turn back. The weather and the views going up were awesome. A little windy on the West side of Fuller Ridge (about 15 to 20 mph) and calm on the east side. Of course the trail crosses the ridge multiple times. However, most of the hike to the intersection was exposed to the wind.

Once I hit the intersection, I thought well it's still good weather so I kept going to San Jacinto Peak. My 10th summit in just over 2 years. ? There were little patches of melted snow and ice along the upper Deer Springs trail. This increased as I got closer to the peak. Of course with the warmer temps today and over the past week I chose not to put on microspikes and I, as well as many others, were fine. Night time may have been a different story!

At the peak the clouds began to roll in around noon (when I got there). See the video! Winds were about 20 to 25 mph initially, but quickly began to increase in intensity. By the time I headed down the winds were easily in the 30s and nearing 40. Of course that's only and educated guess.
I chose to wear my spikes for the descent (smart move). With the winds picking up and the thawed ice on the tree braches it felt like it was raining and the snowy slush was a little slippery. Temps dropped off too. Probably upper 30's and then warming as I descended.

It was still a cool day. I met several PCTers on the trail. My last 3 miles descending was spent hikiing with one of them and sharing stories. He was a retired Physical Therapist. Probably in his late 60's early 70's, doing the PCT! When I grow up, I want to be just like him!