[pct-l] San Jacinto snows

[wpsnotebook at charter.net (Richard Woods)]

I remember the short section of trail between Hwy 79 and Devil's Slide 
in 2002:
Cedar Springs: sits a mile or so down and to the east of the PCT. 
Rather than backtrack the two or three miles, we got lazy and tried 
cutting the trail NW from the springs back up to the PCT - maybe a half 
mile on the map. A couple of our maps had an old trail marked in that 
vicinity - bad choice, they were grown-over firebreaks. Three, four 
hours of bushwacking later we reached the trail about where we 
expected, but hot, dirty, low on water, scratched and hours behind 
schedule. Apache Springs that night was nice with a great view of Palm 
Springs, but only ten miles north on the trail and a big elevation drop 
down and back up the next morning. Only source of water for the next 
ten miles.
Apache Springs to Saddle Junction: very impressive whipsaw back and 
forth over a narrow rocky northbound ridge - hot, dry, high and 
exposed, except for snow and ice chutes. Northeast sides in the shade 
had several dicey snow-chute crossings that I would not want to face 
alone. Trail is a ledge in many places, normally wide enough for pack 
animals, but drifted across wall to cliff, with absolutely no way 
around and a long drop/tumble onto scree into chapparal. After rounding 
Tahquitz on its east side the trail turns west across a north slope in 
tall timber. Heavy snow pillows buried the trail - water worries were 
over, but finding the trail became a challenge. Blazes weren't obvious 
but someone had planted a string of branches in the snow - that helped. 
Actually that area is a big flat bowl, if I had it to do over, I'd set 
a compass bearing and take off cross country. Lots of post-holing - so 
much that I trashed my ankles and didn't even try Fuller Ridge.