Distance: 6.6 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 5796' (Deception), 5058' (Rose)
Elevation Gain: 2280'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.8
Round trip time: 7 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Bill Reily Trailhead
Difficulty: Moderate
This was another Sean Cucamonga joint investigating the historical reference to Rose Peak (5058'). It was based on a description from Lizzie Miller in her 1895 book called The True Way. The target was the peak at the end of a long ridge running east from Mt. Deception. Sean, Cecilia, Collin, Nate, and I met at the Bill Reily trailhead not far from Red Box. The parking area accommodates 5-6 cars. Although the Bill Reily trail started there, we took the paved road up to the use trail that led to Deception. We were moving at a leisurely pace and the Deception summit arrived without fanfare. We stashed some water for the return trip and started down the opposite ridge. There was a respectable use trail going down the east ridge. We found evidence of cuttings and had mostly clear sailing to the dry lake (Supercloud Hollow). There was no moisture in the dry lake and not much vegetation. A few hardy yucca plants were growing on the south side of the lake. To continue down the ridge, we had to bring out the loppers and tools to start cutting our own trail. Primary obstacles were whitethorn and yucca. I put on my gloves and got to work with new loppers. Brush was not as thick as what we encountered on Black Jack, and with three or four of us working on it, we cleared blockages fairly quickly. We also had stretches of clear ridge as a bonus. When Rose came into view, it looked closer than it was because of unseen twists in the ridge. We took frequent breaks and discussed bits of local mountain history. Sean and Colin were the experts and carried much of the conversation. From the base of Rose, it looked like we might be able to find a path, but that was wishful thinking. Colin trimmed up a cluster of yuccas on the side of Rose and we had a couple more sections to clip.
On the summit, we found a benchmark stamped "Arroyo Seco Fourth Order #21". We thought the fourth order sounded like something from the new Star Wars movies. A register was tucked in a broken tupperware container with a single signature, Chuck Hodi, the person who left it in October, 2017. The baggies protecting the register and pen all had holes in them. I replaced two of the baggies with new ones, but the register container needs to be replaced. An entry for this peak was already in Peakbagger.com, called Bear Canyon Point (it does overlook Bear Canyon). There were three different working names for this peak. Collin had been here in 2014 and took a photo of the benchmark. We debated whether the mark was the same one from his photo. Sean and Nate compared the photo to the benchmark and cement cylinder. They concluded it was the same mark. This relieved us of the burden of descending further down the ridge to look for another mark that probably wasn't there. While the benchmark didn't confirm the name Rose, we felt confident this particular peak, rosy at sunset, matched the historical writings of Lizzy Miller. After a long summit rest, we faced some gain getting back up to Deception, but at least we had a freshly cut trail. From Deception, we took a shortcut back to the road and grabbed the Bill Reily trail for the final descent. A successful outing to a seldom visited local peak. The trail should be good for at least a year. We ended the day with ice cream at Handel's.
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