I did Whitney in August, followed by a road trip and then a camping trip in the weeks after it.  I'm friggin tired.  So, I decided to do San Jacinto the laziest way I could think of.  Three of my friends and I took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up, then backpacked to Round Valley Campground for the night.  I knew I was out of shape for backpacking since I hadn't put one on in 4 weeks, so I decided to load down my pack with 50lbs to get some training in, since it was just a few miles.  The weather was lovely and cool–in the 60s in the day and 50s at night.

The next morning, we all got up at 6am to slack-pack it to the summit.  The trail was almost empty the whole way up, and we got the summit to ourselves!  On the way down, it was getting progressively hotter.  By the time we hiked back to the tram, it was about 80deg up there.  The hardest part, I swear, was backpacking up those cement switchbacks while dodging the crowds coming down (who do NOT move aside for backpackers).  We relaxed at the cafeteria for a while, then headed down the tram to the summer heat.