Wanted to say thanks to everyone for the info! Managed to hit up San Jacinto last Tuesday, via Marion Mountain. Pretty easy hike, it reminded me of a similar gradient and mileage like Mt. Timpanogos via Aspen Grove in Utah. I ran into snow at 8,600 feet, though it was pretty solid on the way up. I packed crampons and my axe but never used them. Hit up the summit in about three hours, and saw only one person at the summit the entire time I was on the mountain. The snow got pretty soft as the day heated up, and post hole action varied between a couple inches up to my waist. I did a side trip to Drury Peak before heading back to Little Round Valley and down. It was really cool to see some different terrain, all that granite, ponderosa pines. Different from the summits of the Wasatch here in UT.
Here's a video of the hike:
http://youtu.be/JzjXI7PB6IY[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzjXI7PB6IY[/youtube]
I also took the kids up to Palomar a toured the area. I kept eyeing the highpoint across the way, and ended up stopping at the Forest Service office near the Observatory area on the way out. I got permission from a couple rangers to use the fire road leading from their place to hit up the highpoint. I went back a couple days later with the mountain bike, rode the three miles to the highpoint. There were about three gates which had to be negotiated, a couple belonging to Cal-Tech, though I felt fine going through with the permission of the Forest Service. The road dropped a bit, then climbed about 600-800 vertical feet up to the highpoint. Cool views up there. Both days the lower elevations were cloud covered up until about 5,000 feet, mainly out west, then it was clear.
The rest of the trip was the beach/ocean, lots of swimming and theme park stylz. You folks sure live in a beautiful area.