A Day In The San Jacinto Mountains

Leaving Maryland and the AT behind, I jetted across the continent at thirty thousand feet. Looking down at the Great Plains, the land was a dappled colored mosaic of sections of land, carefully divided into 640 acre parcels, or one mile square, which is the definition of a section. It is interesting that many farmers are now planting and irrigating large circles of land, which don’t cover the corners of their square sections. As I was contemplating this, we were suddenly over Colorado and clouds soon obstructed my view of the land.

The cloud cover remained for the duration of the trip and I landed in Palm Springs in a slight drizzle. So much for “sunny” California – but we need the rain. After the absolutely stunning weather in Maryland, I was okay with a little rain.

The following morning was clear and blue, except for clouds hovering over the San Jacinto Mountains. Through the clouds I could see there was quite a bit of snow on the mountain. Unusual for us to get much snow in May, but there it was! Since I had just gotten home from a 5-day trip, it was unlikely Joyce would be thrilled if I went on an overnight backpacking jaunt, plus I wanted to spend time with her.

It occurred to me the only rational and prudent course of action was to spend the day hiking in the mountains before the snow melted. And that is what I did.