Today’s focus was a push to summit Mt San Jacinto. I packed up and got on trail around 7:30 am. The first hour or two were in a shady pine forest with quite an easy grade. I found a good lookout to Tahquitz Peak from some rocks.

The snow on trail started to thicken. Definitely no spikes needed for the shoes, but kicking steps helped in some spots.

The trail headed to a junction, and it’s at this point that PCT hikers decide whether they want to summit San Jacinto,or follow the official route around the mountain. For me, on a day like this, there really was no question.

As the summit trail climbed, the trees thinned out and I was able to see the view from the mountainside. There was a stream crossing the trail with beautiful fresh water from melting snow above.

The trail became mostly covered in snow and meandered upwards. Multiple trails took differing routes through the snow, but still ended up in the same place. Eventually the snow gave way to large boulders which had to be scrambled over to get to the summit. As soon as I got there, one of the others in the group recognized me and called me over. We took pictures on the summit before getting ready to cook lunch.

I’d been carrying a steak since Paradise Valley Cafe, and today it called to me. The steak seared amazingly, and I had an epic view to go with it. I also had some fresh onion caramelising in the pan, with a splash of white wine from the goon bag heroically carried by Linda.

Getting down was almost as hard as going up. We walked over snow drifts, and every step was heavy. The trail reached a junction and leveled out a bit, we were back on the official PCT route. After 0.5 miles, another beautiful clear water source. The next reliable water source was in 18 miles, which meant I needed to take 7 L away from this one (1 L per 4 miles, plus 2 L for camp). Once I’d collected all this water, I could barely lift my pack.

I set up camp just in time to cook dinner in the dying light. As I was heading back to my tent from where I cooked with the others, I realized the full moon was brighter than my headlamp on red mode, so I just used the moon while I was getting ready to sleep. It had been been another hard day, but a very rewarding one.