Mt. San Jacinto is a huge mountain looming above Palm Springs in Southern California's lower desert region. Rising nearly 10,400 feet above the Palm Springs area in about 6 horizontal miles, the escarpment is one of the largest in the United States. On a clear day the summit is visible from well over a hundred miles, and is an especially pretty mountain from the east as one heads west along Interstate-10, right about at the San Andreas Fault grade just east of Indio/Coachella.

This hike included a bunch of my Riverside college friends, four of whom had been up Mt. Whitney with me less than a year ago. I was now living in Arizona, but I drove back to Southern California to join everyone for a fun hike. There are two main routes to San Jacinto's summit: one coming up from the south in Idyllwild, and one from the east via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. We chose to ride the tram, which lets off at a restaurant complex at about 8,400 feet elevation. Many people come up just to stay the day at the complex, and I've done the same... it makes a great place for a 'date'! Behind the complex a paved path snakes down and lets off at a trail. Shortly up the trail we came to a Ranger Station, signed in, and began our trudge toward the top. We were all carrying packs with the intent of staying a night up top. About 4 miles of hiking later, some of it through marsh, we came upon the camping area, where we set camp and stayed the evening.

The winter if 1993 had been a wet one, and in late May there was still considerable snow on the ground, obscuring the trails. Snowline was about 9,500 feet (our campsite was about 9,000 feet and there was patchy snow in the area). We hiked up a drainage up to a large bowl to the southeast of the summit, then gained the main ridge east of the top. Much of this was pure cross-country; no trail whatsoever. As we gained elevation the snow increased but it was deeply consolidated and it was fairly easy to walk along it without slipping. From here it was an easy stroll to the top. Temperatures were about 60 degrees, and the summit boulders were exposed. We enjoyed a long lunch at the top, then a careful hike down (with some unintentional glissading). We exited the area the next morning. Total round-trip from tram to summit and back was about 12 miles and 2,500 feet of gain. The only other thing I explicitly remember about this trip was listening to the Los Angeles-Toronto hockey game on my portable radio - the 7th game of the semifinals in which the Kings won, going to the Stanley Cup finals. That was pretty cool.