San Jacinto is quite a dry mountain. With the recent drought years there were very limited water sources available. So it was great to see all kinds of flowing surface water. We chose 7 Pines trail for it’s solitude and streams on the lower 3.5 miles before it meets up with the Deer Springs / PCT trail. 7 Pines should only be attempted by someone with trail finding experience and navigation aides like map/compass/GPS. The trail is not maintained and in places hard to find. Especially this year with lots of dead fall and big snow patches above 8000ft.
As it is still peak PCT through hiker season we met quite a number of hikers with big packs. Some had chosen the detour over the peak.
The “excessive” 😉 number of creek/water pics in the gallery is probably best appreciated by someone familiar with the mountain in a normal year.
