Off trail, Deer, and Twins. Doesn’t get much better than that!

2/1 San Jacinto Peak via the Sid Davis Route, 7.37 miles, 2,793 feet in elevation gain

My first hike of the year and it didn’t disappoint! I took the tram up to hike my favorite peak for the 27th time. Only instead of following the regular trail to the summit I decided to take the Sid Davis Trail (or Ranger Route) to the Peak Trail. Followed the peak trail for about .5 miles and then followed a trace trail up to the summit approaching from the Southeast instead of the Southwest approach. Same amount of elevation gain (about 2700 feet) as the normal route up but a little shorter to the summit. 3.69 miles up versus 5.5 miles up.

I can’t speak for the main trail, but the snow on my route wasn’t too bad. Maybe 2 to 4 inches most of the way. I was able to follow a set of prints from the main trail to the Tamarack Campground. After that I was breaking trail and route finding up to the Peak Trail. There were a few areas along the slope as I neared the peak trail where the snow depth got to about 6 to 10 inches.

Two highlights of the day, other than being in the snow and basically off trail, was seeing a deer and having the privilege of running into the Super Hiking Twins again. I believe the last time we ran into each other was mid-January last year in snowy conditions on the very same trail.

Hike #1 in the books! Looking forward to #2 once I figure out when and where that will be. I’m thinking Arizona next week.