Hiked: 6/10/2023
Distance: 8.8 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 5521' (Black Jack), 6159' (Strawberry)
Elevation Gain: 2874'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.4
Round trip time: 7 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 96 oz.
Parking/Fees: Adventure Pass at Red Box
Difficulty: Moderate
Sean "Cucamonga Man" Green discovered a reference to Black Jack Peak and planned an expedition to search for it. According to historian Hiram Reid, Owen and Jason Brown climbed Black Jack Peak in 1887. They gave it this name after the from which the rugged pinnacle is composed. Seven of us showed up for the hunt, including Madison "Uncle Rico" Christian, Nate U. and Jeff H. I knew from the San Gabriel Forum. Guy and Scoops were fellow trail workers with Sean.
The target was Peak 5521, our best guess at Black Jack. It took about an hour to reach the elevation on Strawberry where we started looking for a place to leave the trail. Buckthorn, brush, and yucca were pretty thick everywhere. We decided to head for a narrow clearing on the adjacent ridge, dropping steeply into a choked drainage. Before we made it to clearing, we had to deploy the cutting tools. Between us, we had a lopper, two machetes, and two pruning tools. Sean took the first shift with the loppers, but we traded off as we got further away from the trail. After going over the first ridge, we followed another drainage for a while, then up and over a second ridge where we got our first glimpse of Peak 5521. It was less than half a mile away but a solid wall of forest stood between us and the peak. We contoured further up the ridge until we hit the main ridge line coming down from Strawberry. The brush was thin at this point and we cruised to the base of 5521. We had to deal with one more nasty patch of buckthorn before finding our way to the summit. The summit itself was long, flat and narrow. There was some black rock in the cliffs that made up the south side of the summit and more jagged, black rock on the lower south ridge. Whether that was conclusive evidence was open, but we declared 5521 Black Jack based on what evidence there was.
Sean broke out some playing cards and we played Black Jack on Black Jack during our break. We spent around 30 minutes on the summit (breaks included in the round trip time). We had great views of Lawlor, the south face of Strawberry, and the front range. Sean left a register in a glass jar under a bush at the summit. As we started back, an LA Sheriff rescue helicopter appeared by Lawlor and followed the trail to the saddle, then it went up to the top of Lawlor. We didn't know if it was an exercise or a real rescue. We made great time on the way back to the trail, following footsteps, cuttings, and cairns Sean had erected.
Looking over at Josephine
After we climbed back to the trail, the group was heading back for ice cream. I wanted to tag Strawberry since I had not done it from the eastern side. No one else was interested so I bid everyone farewall. It was great meeting people from the forum and the trail workers. It took me about an hour to get up and down Strawberry. I stayed about 30 seconds on the summit to avoid getting stuck behind a party of about 25 or more hikers who were just starting down. I don't normally like group hikes, but this group had no weak links. It was a chill hike from start the finish. I discovered two thorns lodged in my skin when I got back, one in each hand, but my legs were spared. As good an outcome as could be expected.
Interesting thought that Desolation Pinnacle could be Black Jack. Is that pinnacle composed of black rock?
ReplyDeleteMadison,
DeleteIt is composed of mostly black and gray rock (see photos in my report) or look at Sean and Willie's report on the forum. I floated it by Sean, but he doesn't think it is for various reasons and I may have misunderstood what he wrote about Mt. Disappointment.