This is super helpful, thank you so much!
We are a relatively fit group, always hiking on weekends and weight training during the week, but 4/6 of us at San Diego sea level. We just finished San Jacinto in about 7 hours with our full packs and some nice breaks. We plan on doing Cucuamonga peak this weekend, so that will give us a good feel on the ~4k altitude timing. I've noticed with my pack my trips take about an extra 2 hours than what I'd normally do. We rented an airbnb in Lone Pine for about 3 days before to get in some additional practice hikes and so we don't have to drive in from far the morning of the trip. With all that being said, I think your 5-6AM advice is what we'll end up doing! That's a great tip on getting familiar with the trail in the daytime before a 3AM start. Thank again!!
