Before joining the Jepson group for the San Jacinto Mountains workshop, I hiked up the Devil's Slide Trail to Saddle Junction. I was curious to see what the current state of the bloom was for this area compared to what it had been on several trips later in the season a couple of years ago. What I found was a bit disheartening and doesn't seem to bode well for the success of the workshop. The combination of the early date and the general lack of moisture on the trail are not good signs that we will be finding much in the way of flowers if we restrict the workshop to areas near the James Reserve, which is where we are scheduled to be staying. Seasonal drainages that had been moist even in July were now completely dry, and most of the species that we found along those drainages are absent. It just points up the fact that it is a very difficult thing when planning a workshop months in advance to predict how floristic any given area will be. We just have to hope that our trip leader will know of some productive localities to investigate. An indispensible aide for identifying the flora to be found along this trail is the excellent plant guide compiled byTom Chester which is at http://tchester.org/sb/plants/guides/devils_slide.html.