EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

I spent the weekend backpacking with my son's scout troop up Mt. San Jacinto. In years past, we have done the summit starting from the Palm Springs Tramway. This year we decided to do the longer, and much harder hike from Idyllwild. The hike started from Humber Park on the Devil's Slide trail. This trail quickly ascends 1600 vertical feet to Saddle Junction where it meets the Pacific Crest Trail. The trail continues to climb up to Wellman's Divide at 9700' elevation. It took us about 6 hours to climb 3200 vertical feet and cover this first 5.5 miles up the trail. From there we descended another mile to Round Valley where we spent the night.

The trailhead is about where my right shoulder is in the picture, and this is only about half way to the summit.

After a night of well deserved rest and recuperation, we hit the trail early and headed back up to Wellman's Divide and then on to the summit. The hike up to the summit is 3.5 miles from Round Valley. The trail passes along some north facing slopes and there was still lots of snow covering the trail in many places. We had a quick snack at the 10,834' summit of Mt. San Jacinto and then began the long 8 mile trek back to the trailhead. It was much easier going downhill. The weather was really warm up there and it got warmer as we descended. We were all feeling quite exhausted by the time we got back to the cars at 5pm. We hiked over 18 miles in 2 days.

More photos are here.