Idyllic San jacinto

Hiked San Jacinto from the Marion Mountain Trail Head near Idyllwild.  We lefft LA at 4:30am and were on the trail just after 7am.  Cool and shady in the morning, which made for great hiking weather.  At the lower elevations, the trees were showing lovely fall colors.  The wind picked up as we neared the first saddle and continued through the summit where we needed layers due to the wind chill.  There were very few people on the trail with us, and most we saw at the summit itself.  Overall took around 8.5 hours, though we took our time a bit more than normal and were also moving slow both at the summit and in the final stretch of the descent.  Overall it was a beautiful day for a moderately strenuous hike.