Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Day 10:early June gloom @ Cucamonga peak

Have you ever done something just because it sounded good? I was looking through the Falcon hiking guide to SoCal at the library near my Moms's's looking for a hike between L.A. and Las Vegas.
There its was: Cucamonga peak accessed from the Icehouse canyon trailhead off Mt Baldy road. Only 8 miles or so off the freeway, how could I not go there? (Because it's a 5hr hike to go with the day's 5 hr drive? {Quiet, inner voice of reason})
Visibility continues to be bad. The first 1.5 miles of this hike has a nice clear babling brook and several angling cabins. Then the switchbacks begin right after the wilderness boundary and it becomes like most other low sierra hikes trudging through rockfall and sparse shade from ponderosa pine. Past the 5 trail intersection at a saddle it flattens out some then, just past my first snowfield encounter of the trip, resumes climbing to the peak. Would that a person could see 10 miles clearly from 8000ft. My theory is that the paucity of winter rain and snow moved up the normal June gloom into May. I'd like do this hike again but only in early spring after a rain to clear up the view and charge the stream. Overnight in VEGAS BABY! at a rabble filled Days inn t



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