The view from the trailhead

Mount Tule
Elevation: 4,649′
Miles: 2.25
Trail head (32.71269, -116.23672)
Agency: McCain Valley National Co-op Land and Wildlife Management Area

It’s always nice to be able to get away. Even if sometimes the hike is the same duration as the drive to and from the trailhead. Sometimes it’s the anticipation of the hike, of the view, of the experience.

After dropping my daughter off at preschool, I drove out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It’s a long drive and I had planned on bagging as many peaks as I could before I had to head back and pick up my daughter. I started to get a little worried when I drove through a lot of precipitation on the way to the trailhead.

Most of the time, as you drive east from San Diego proper, the weather tends to ease up and the clouds give way to sunny skies. This time, it didn’t happen that way. And I learned when checking the weather that one adjacent zip code could vary widely from another.

The Coast to Crest Trail goes through the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve

As you likely know, legendary hiker and professor Jerry Schad passed away recently. Many people have expressed how he had touched their lives.

Once I was an adult, I started my hiking history in Orange County, using his book as my sole reference to the surrounding trails. My girlfriend at the time, (she’s my wife, now), spent many of our first dates with Afoot and Afield in Orange County as our guide. When we moved to San Diego we bought the current edition of Afoot and Afield in San Diego. I bought a new version when that came out and then gave away my older version to a hiker new to the area.

Jerry Schad spent tireless hours exploring the area and took the time to share his knowledge with us. It’s hard to calculate the inspiration he’s given us to get outside. I feel he needs to be honored.

Boucher Hill Viewing Platform

Trailhead Map (33.33195, -116.90684)

After reading a recent article about the renovation of the Boucher Hill Fire Lookout Tower and knowing that Palomar Mountain State Park is slated to be closed as a result of budget cuts from Sacramento, I decided to make Boucher Hill a priority. I summited the peak back in 2006 with my brothers-in-law and had a great time, but it wasn’t officially part of the 100 Peaks quest, so I wanted to summit it again.

Knowing I could squeeze it in the middle of a work day (I have a flexible schedule), I made the beautiful drive through Pala and Pauma Valley. I couldn’t smell the citrus blossoms like I sometime can in the spring, but it was a really nice morning. The temperature rose from 75 to 85 as I made my way around winding roads and past cyclists and motorcycle groups to higher elevations on the mountain. It was going to be a warm day.

Barn in Daley Ranch

Be on the lookout for some changes to the site to be coming up over the next several weeks. What is live now is a new Peak List, which is a sortable table that indicates whether or not a peak is in the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Hundred Peaks Section (HPS), the San Diego Sierra Club’s One Hundred Peaks List (SDC) or whether or not I’ve created a Google Earth trail map for that particular hike.

I intend to have maps for all the hikes, so that column will go away once I am up to date.

The next minor thing is that I’ve numbered the icons on my Peaks Map to correspond with the Peak Numbers.

What’s to come:

• Creating information pages for all the agencies associated with the areas that contain each peak.
• Creating links or portfolio views to Flickr Sets for each trip report, so that higher res pics can be seen.
• Cleaning up older, more sparse, trip reports and making sure there are links to the trailhead and maps. I will also add any new pictures I’ve taken since I’ve been there.
• Working on my backlog of gear reviews, non-profit organization summaries, list of parks and recreation areas throughout the county
• Creating a list and map of my non-San Diego Peaks, and hikes, such as my trips to Mount Whitney, Ka’ala Peak on Oahu, San Jacinto Peak, and other peaks I’ve summited over the years.
• Creating a Tips Page, for hiking and camping tips. I’ve learned a lot and have made a lot of mistakes that others can avoid.
• Fleshing out my About page, containing more information about what I am doing, where I got my peak list, and what I consider a peak.

I am hoping to be summiting more peaks over the next few weeks, so these trip reports will be on the way, as well.

The weather has finally heated up and I hope you are all getting some time on the trails. As always, I love to get comments, even on really old posts.

As some of you know, it’s hard for me to find time to hit all the peaks quickly, as my schedule is pretty dynamic. I often am not sure I am going to be hiking until the night before. Hopefully that will change soon.

I hope to see you on the trail!

-Derek

Whale Peak Summit Sign

Whale Peak
Elevation: 5,350′
Total Mileage: ~10

Trailhead Map (33.05165, -116.36605)

This hike was supposed to be a grand day of hiking involving up to six Southern California bloggers. I was supposed to be the knowledgeable host, guiding my guests around the San Diego backcountry. I had hand-picked two hikes to show two distinct regions of San Diego to my guests from the north.

However, hiking is all about being flexible and taking whatever comes your way with a smile, and sometimes, a sigh.

It all started with a simple tweet. I tweeted a picture from one of my hikes and Casey (@ModernHiker) tweeted back that he should come hiking in San Diego. I tweeted back that it was a great idea and we should calendar it or it would never happen. Then Kolby (@TheHikeGuy),Jeff (@SoCalHiker), Peter (@ADKinLA) and Kam (@CampfireChic) all got into the mix. The SoCal Hiking Blogger Summit, as Kolby called it.

Then Kolby lost his job and decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail all the way through. Understandably, he had some planning to do. Casey and Kam also had other plans get in the way, and we all know that feeling.

So it ended up being Jeff, Peter, and I to meet and hike in San Diego. The plan was to meet and drive out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park together, hike Whale Peak, a short 4-mile hike with 1,500’ of gain. Then we were to drive back towards Julian for an easy stroll to Volcan Mountain.

And then have apple pie.

Sunrise Over Anza-Borrego

Bonny Benchmark
Elevation: 4,574′

White Benchmark
Elevation: 5,326′

The Thimble
Elevation: 5,779′

Ysidro Benchmark
Elevation: 6,147′

Total Mileage: 7.96

Trailhead Map (33.210596, -116.49509)

It’s amazing the difference that weather can make on a hike. About a month and a half ago, I attempted this same hike. The weather was cold, but the wind, combined with some icy precipitation and some snowy patches made the trip very challenging. Therefore, I decided to pull the plug and turn around, only completing half the peaks that I had wanted to on that day.

This time, it was still cold (26F on the way to the trailhead), but the winds were calm and the sky was devoid of any clouds. This would make all the difference in the world.

Manza Benchmark from the ridge

This topic has been coming up a lot lately in my conversations: Have you ever met an unfriendly hiker?

In all sorts of other recreational activities, it seems like there are hotheads and inconsiderate people. But hikers, in my experience, reach some sort of meditative state where they are at some sort of peace with themselves. Hiking to them is not a race or athletic endeavor; it’s a journey or break from an otherwise chaotic life. The act of hiking is a calming process that balances the focus inward with the focus outward.

I bring this up because I met some especially nice hikers on my trip today.

I got another early start. I love driving in the dark on the way to a trail. It might be cold when I get there, but I love to feel nature wake up in the morning. The quiet sounds of birds waking up and the wind blowing gently through the trees are typically what I find once I set foot on the trail. I didn’t get that today.

San Jacinto Peak sign

From time to time, I will be “re-publishing” some old posts from other blogs here. Some of them will be travel posts, some will be hiking or camping posts. For whatever reason, I think my readers may be interested in the content. I will post a new blog linking to the blog that is posted to the old date. This is the first of them.

This particular retro post is a “reprint” of an older post that was originally posted on my personal blog, posted here since it is relevant and a very memorable trip for me. This trip succeeded in giving me a fitness wake-up call, finally getting me to join Joe Decker’s workout group, which jump-started my fitness and ultimately led me to conceive of hiking 100 peaks as a possbility. I am also planning to hike the same trail soon as a day hike, and this report serves as a baseline of sorts.

The Post:

Mount San Jacinto – October 2007 – A Wake Up Call

Cuyamaca Peak from Japacha Peak

Cuyamaca Peak
Elevation: 6,512′

Japacha Peak
Elevation: 5,825′

Airplane Ridge
Elevation: 5,000′

Arrowmakers Ridge
Elevation: 4,740′

Total Mileage: 14.22 miles

Getting to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park always takes longer than I think it does. I left the house at 6AM and didn’t get on the trail until 8AM, as I have to take into consideration picking up the PD, getting breakfast to go, and driving out to the park.

Regardless, we arrived at Paso Picacho and were instantly chilled by the wind blasting through the valley. I was glad that I had brought extra layers, even though the weather report indicated that the high would be hovering near 70 degrees.

Ocotillo on the way to Villager Peak

Villager Peak:
Elevation: 5,756′
Miles: ~13.78

Rabbit Peak:
Elevation: 6,640′
Miles: ~8.9

Trail head

This was my first peak summiting with a group (Gut Check Fitness with Joe Decker) and the first overnight trip, as well. I have been wanting to do this hike for along time, since the epic scope of it seems unlike any other hike in San Diego. Although I summited two peaks on this trip, only Villager Peak counts, since Rabbit Peak is in Riverside County. Both peaks, however, are on the Hundred Peaks Section of the Angeles Sierra Club.