Distance: 11.3 miles round trip on trail, use trail, and cross country
Summit Elevation: 8340' (Cedar), 8428' (Oak Glen), 8680' (Wilshire)
Elevation Gain: 4530'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 3.6
Round trip time: 8 hours 20 minutes
Recommended water: 128 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Pilgrim Pines Camp
Difficulty: Strenuous
There are seven HPS peaks along the Yucaipa Ridge, counting Galena. I had climbed five of them on previous hikes, and now I was going after the two middle peaks: Cedar Mountain (HPS #57) and Wilshire Peak (HPS #41). Between the two was Oak Glen Peak, almost unavoidable on the traverse. The closest approach was from the Pilgrim Pines Camp, a private organization. I contacted their office and got permission to hike the trail that goes up to Cedar Mountain, sometimes called the Ford Canyon trail. It has been unmaintained after multiple fires and much of lower trail washed away. I headed for the upper camp where a nice single track runs west before a dead end. I passed a use trail connector to the Ford Canyon trail and back tracked to find it. I was only on the remains of the trail a few hundred feet before losing it and heading straight up. I picked my way up the steep slope through a mix of whitethorn, brush, and burned trees. A thousand feet up the ridge, I found remnants of the trail again, but it was hard to follow. There were a few rocky class 3 sections and a lot of hand use getting up the loose dirt. I gained almost 3000' in the first two miles, slow as molasses, then the slope eased up as I approached Cedar Mountain. Just before Cedar, I found a burned trail junction sign. I didn't find benchmarks on any of the peaks. Cedar had a register from 2011 and there were older registers in the cans. It had poor views except to Oak Glen and Wilshire.
After resting on Cedar, I was able to follow the trail along the ridge as it dropped to a saddle, then up to Oak Glen. Oak Glen had a register and better views. The final push was a 400' gain to Wilshire Peak. Instead of the standard cans, the Wilshire register was in a PVC pipe with a lid. The last group to visit these peaks was in June. Wilshire had fine views of San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, and everything west of the ridge. While lunching on Wilshire, I contemplated how to get down. I absolutely didn't want to do the down-up-down-up back to Cedar, then face the ugly ridge back to Pilgrim Pines. Instead, I aimed for the Wilshire Peak trail (a dirt road) and would deal with any access issues if someone stopped me. It was easy going down the dirt road. I passed some houses and had to get through a barbed wire fence to reach the lower paved portion of the road. I walked past a homeowner cutting trees along the road with a chainsaw. He didn't notice me until I passed. The chainsaw stopped, but he didn't say anything. Near the bottom, I met another homeowner with another chainsaw. He waved and said I looked like John Muir. No beard, but I took it as a compliment. He asked for my help to load a large tree cut into his truck. Together, we heaved it over the side. Turns out he was a spry 85 years of age, envious of my relative youth at 61. I hope I am as active at 85. I had a few miles of paved road to walk to loop back to my truck, but was glad I descended that way. A half dozen mule deer were milling around the camp, a nice way to end to the day. This was a wrap on Yucaipa Ridge. In hindsight, I probably should have descended the entire ridge from Little San Gorgonio except for Allen Peak, and picked up Allen on a separate hike. Retrospectu est viginti viginti.
Nice job! Makes me happy to see a repeat of the route I did last year.
ReplyDeleteBen FR,
DeleteHey, thanks for the route. I wanted to go up and down Wilshire Peak trail, but the gate was closed and there all kinds of no trespassing and private property signs. So I went up Ford Canyon, but did not want to return that way. I hopped the same barbed wire fence you did. I think I could have gotten down on the dirt road, but would have had to walk farther back to Pilgrim Pines. Quite a hike.