Mount Jupiter — Sunday, Jul. 13, 2025

My wife and I drove our Prius to the locked gate 3 miles from the highway with bikes on the back. Check the fine print on the sign at the gate. It notes that the area is closed to all access from August 1-Dec 31st except by permit.

We rode our bikes 3.5 from the gate to the upper trail access. We had to dismount and push our bikes up the final half mile of road because it was too steep to ride with our heavy packs full of water for the day. We probably should have just ridden to the lower TH to save our energy. It was going to be pretty hot and there's no water on the trail. It took a minute to spot the upper trail access as it isn't marked.  GPS helped.

From the upper trail access the trail is in pretty good shape all the way to the summit. It was a little overgrown in a few spots, but good. Bear grass and rhodies were dried up and crispy on most of the trail, but were still blooming on the open slopes during the final mile to the top. Views were great! More wildflowers up here, too. Bugs weren't great on the way up, but the summit was the worst. We stopped for a break below the summit to try get away from the mosquito swarm. I killed 30 of them but eventually stopped counting. They seemed to chase us all the way back to the bikes. The ride back down was fun with great views over the water. We saw no other people.