Spitler Peak Trail
5.3 mi
Distance
2 hrs 22 min
Time
terrain
2,454 ft
Elev Gain
Overview
This is a moderate one way trail in San Jacinto Wilderness.
Rate this Hike
★★★★★
Solo hiked Fri 6/14/2024 – Decided to create a loop by taking the Spitler Peak Trail up and the Zen Center - Apple Canyon Trail on the way down with stops on the Apache Peak & Antsell Rock summits. Ascended Antsell on the northeast gully route and descended via the northwest ridge. It was great weather going up Antsell Rock, providing for spectacular views off the summit. Coming back from Southwell Peak during the first week of March, I climbed the NE gully route on ice/snow up to the notch before running into a very shiny verglas coating on everything above the notch. Going up the gully this time was nice with careful routing to avoid launching any rocks down towards the PCT. The class 3 sections up to the summit were fun but short lived with some Poodle Dog bush to avoid at all cost on the second class 3 section and even more prolific on the way down the northwest ridge. Scrambling the northwest ridge on the way down was great fun but time consuming. A quicker option would be to traverse down along the west side of the ridge to reduce the scrambling work (but what fun would that be). Once heading down the Apple Canyon return trail, I followed a Peakbagger GPX route that sent me into extreme, shoulder high bushwhacking mode in two places. There were cairns/ducks marking a slightly overgrown trail going down that I should have stayed on but I kept thinking that the bagger GPX would lead to the proper creekside trail which it never did. Lots of time wasted here going through buckthorn and trying to avoid poison oak thickets before getting back on the better trail above the Zen Center. My advice to anyone going up Apple Canyon would be to pick up the trail at Zen and use the cairns with careful route finding between them. Otherwise, just use the Spitler Peak Trail that Jon King and the San Jacinto Trail Report has recently cleared of 30+ blow downs/tree limbs. Spitler might be a longer route to access the PCT but it’s a more enjoyable one with no private property to deal with. In spite of my travails coming down Apple Canyon, it was a very enjoyable hike that just took longer than planned. Logged 12.0 miles / 3318 vertical ft with Gaia
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