Folly Peak, San Jacinto Peak, Jean Peak, Marion Mountain

14-15 June 1969

By: How Bailey

Leader: How Bailey
Asst.: Vic Gleason

The hike up to Deer Springs Saturday morning turned out to be rather rough. The two largest stream crossings were negotiated all right, but the slow pace caught up with us and it got dark at just about the place where washouts, snow patches and fallen trees pretty well obliterated the trail. Ken Ferrell was volunteered to lead one group - cross-country over a route he had never seen - directly up to the campsite, and I brought the remainder in at 10:30. Four and one-half hours to clime 2400 ft.! Several people were late starting, and four never did find the camp -- though they found us in the morning. I was a most discouraged leader night.

However, a good night's sleep and a little judicious weeding-out enabled the rest of the trip to go as planned after all. We left at 7:30 for Little Round Valley, and then made a direct ascent to Folly. The sky was overcast and it was already stormy over the desert, but we had no trouble all day. The rocks up to San Jacinto were mostly bare, so we arrived about 11:00. There we met Lew Hill and a contingent from the San Diego chapter. Some of our group went back down to Little Round Valley and returned by trail. Twelve of us continued on to Jean for lunch and then Marion. The snow added quite a lot to the effort required on this traverse. Under trees the surface was continually up and down some 3-6 feet, and in the open it was sun-cupped. The third-class summit provided a fitting climax and everyone was quite happy -- probably just because now it was all downhill. In addition, it was Joyce Davis' 100th, duly celebrated (on Folly, to save weight!). The route to Deer Springs from Marion is direct, with lots of glissading. Below camp, with packs now, we got to see what we had missed the night before, and we actually lucked out with an additional shortcut and reached the cars by 6:00.

It was a varied and very full 24 hours, somewhat more strenuous than planned because of the snow, but enjoyable nevertheless. This is the most Sierra-like area in Southern California and it deserves to be better known.