Margarita Peak

Hiked: 5/3/2013
Distance: 6 miles round trip on dirt road and use trail
Summit Elevation: 3189'
Prominence: 1029'
Elevation Gain: 1000'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.8
Round trip time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Recommended water: 56 oz.
Parking/Fees: Adventure Pass
Difficulty: Moderate

Margarita Peak is on the Sierra Club lower peaks list in the Santa Ana Mountains. It overlooks Camp Pendleton marine base and for that reason must be approached from the east (Lake Elsinore/Murietta) side of the mountains. Getting to the remote trail head is somewhat confusing and a challenge equal or greater than the climb itself. The general instructions are to take the Clinton Keith exit from I-15, follow it until it becomes Tenaja Road, then make a left on Margarita Road and follow it on a dirt road until it makes a hairpin turn to the right. You can park there or drive further up the road if you have a high clearance vehicle. From Orange County, I took the I-5 to the 74 (Ortega), went over the mountains, turned right on Grand and followed it south until it dead ends at Clinton Keith. Then, I went right to Tenaja and continued on Tenaja until it turned into a dirt road.

I made a big mistake after it turned into a dirt road. I was looking for the Margarita Road sign, but there was none. The first intersection after Tenaja turns into a dirt road is Tenaja Truck Trail to the left, while Tenaja continues straight. I continued on Tenaja looking for Margarita Road, following every path to a dead end. There were no signs after it turned to a dirt road. I backtracked to Tenaja Truck Trail, and that turned out to be Margarita Road. When I got to the hairpin turn, I didn't see any trail ahead, so I continued up the dirt road as far as I felt my car could handle it, then parked. With the wasted time, the travel time to start the hike was almost 2 hours. If you want to do this hike, my suggestion is to thoroughly study Google maps and Google earth so the maze of dirt roads doesn't lead you astray like it did me.

This peak sees little traffic, but has one huge fan on the web, which provided some useful beta. The Angeles Sierra Club web pages was from 1999 and useless. From the trail head, follow the road until you hit a T, turn left past a gate, then at the next T intersection turn right and head up the overgrown fire road to the ridge. The fire road is filled with poodle-dog bush, so watch your step. At the top of the ridge, follow the use trail around to the west side of the mountain, then back up to the peak. The final peak trail is about 18" wide and crowded with manzanita. The 360 views from the peak are some of the best I've seen, with views of San Onofre beach, the ocean, Saddleback, San Gorgonio, San Jacinto, and parts of San Diego. There were bees and flies bugging me at the summit, so I only took time to sign the register and snap a few photos. The last visitor to sign before me was almost 3 weeks earlier on 4/13/2013. If you want some isolation, this is a great peak. I met no one coming or going.

Sign at base of fire road to Margarita Peak

Tiger swallowtail butterfly

Overgrown fire road to Margarita Peak

Cairn marking the narrow summit use trail

Margarita Peak survey marker

View into Camp Pendleton from Margarita Peak. Marine vehicles and possible tents were visible.

Mt. Harwood, Thunder Mountain, Register Ridge

Hiked: 4/26/2013
Distance: 9.4 miles round trip on dirt road, trail, and cross country
Summit Elevation: 9552' (Mt. Harwood), 8587' (Thunder Mountain)
Prominence: 152' (Mt. Harwood), 387' (Thunder Mountain)
Elevation Gain: 4120' (combined)
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 3.29
Round trip time: 5 hours 20 minutes
Recommended water: 128 oz.
Parking/Fees: Adventure Pass
Difficulty: Strenuous

This was intended to be a standard training hike for Mt. Whitney with a group going in July, but when the group didn't show up, I improvised. Instead of doing the Ski Hut Trail and Devil's Backbone loop, I decided to tackle Register Ridge, a lesser known use trail that heads straight up to Mt. Harwood. Parking was near the Manker Flat Campground. It was 49F at the trail head, but it warmed up as the day unfolded.

Harwood was my main target today, along with Register Ridge and the Devil's Backbone, which were all new experiences for me. The gain on Register Ridge is less than the Ski Hut trail because it doesn't go all the way to Mt. Baldy. However, it has fewer switchbacks and no level sections. It is up, then up, and more up. I saw the Ski Hut from the Ridge a few times and had perfect views of the Baldy Bowl. Once it intersected with the Devil's Backbone, I continued straight up the summit of Mt. Harwood across the rocky talus. There was no vegetation on top of Harwood, just rocks. There was zero snow anywhere on the trail. I saw one snow patch on the north side of Harwood, but it didn't look like it was going to last long.

Next, I proceeded down the Devil's Backbone trail toward the ski areas. I passed some idle lifts and had enough energy left that I decided to tag Thunder Mountain. When I got to Mt. Baldy Road, I continued up the road and followed it all the way to Thunder. The final climb to Thunder was over another rock field, but not as pleasant as Harwood. Then came my questionable call of the day: to head down Emile's black diamond ski run. It was covered in loose rocks and dirt, the decent angles were uncomfortable, and I ended up "skiing" down scree in many places, sometimes managing a 10 foot slide before taking the next step. I lost 1000' of elevation in about 1/2 a mile. It was slow and miserable, and when I got to the bottom, both boots were filled with pebbles.

The return on the road was uneventful, except for one shortcut below the one running ski lift. I waved at two sets of riders on their way up. They were probably watching to see if I had any mishap navigating the use trail below the lift, but I didn't. I saw no one on Register Ridge, and no one on Thunder Mountain either. I met a few hikers and dogs on the road on the way down.

Start of the Register Ridge Trail, just past the first switchback on the Ski Hut trail

Climbing Register Ridge

Baldy Bowl from Register Ridge

Mt. Baldy from Mt. Harwood summit

Looking down the giant rock field that makes up Mt. Harwood.

Descending the Devil's Backbone trail

Top of the ski lift on Thunder Mountain

Thunder Mountain summit sign

Baldy, Harwood, and Dawson from Thunder Mountain summit. This appears to be the top of Emile's diamond ski run that I descended from Thunder.

Trabuco Peak

Hiked: 4/14/2013
Distance: 10.9 miles round trip on dirt road and trail
Summit Elevation: 4604'
Prominence: 817'
Elevation Gain: 2230'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.78
Round trip time: 4 hours 40 minutes
Recommended water: 80 oz.
Parking/Fees: Adventure Pass
Difficulty: Moderate

Trabuco Peak is the 3rd highest peak in the Santa Ana mountains. Like other Peaks in the range, it straddles the Orange County/Riverside County line. There are multiple routes to it, but all involve the Main Divide Road. If you have a 4x4 vehicle, you can drive up to the point where the firebreak/use trail heads up to the peak. Otherwise, all routes are in the 10 mile range. I approached from the same North Main Divide road trailhead that I used to reach Los Pinos Peak.

My daughter Shelby came along, but this hike was a little long for her taste. Still, she made it to the peak. From the North Main Divide trailhead, the dirt road heads up to the Los Pinos saddle. Then, it descends into a pine forest and wanders up, down, and around various unnamed bumps. For the price of a little elevation gain, you can shortcut parts of the road by going over firebreaks. We took a few of these shortcuts, but got burned on one coming back that didn't reconnect with the road.

On a clear day, there might have been nice views on both sides of the mountains, but the clouds were lower than the road so what we mostly saw was clouds drifting across the road and through the forest like the movie "The Mist". Eventually, we passed the intersection of West Horsetheif Trail coming up from the canyon. Another mile and change gets you to the base of Trabuco Peak, with a firebreak/use trail heading up toward what I call "The One Tree" that adorns the peak proper. The scramble up to the peak has a lot of loose dirt, but is only a few hundred feet above the road.

The peak itself is almost overgrown with six foot high Manzanita and other shrubs. The final use trail is well hidden and spurs sharply left about 50 feet to the benchmark and summit register. I walked right past it at first and found it on the way back. The key is to focus on "The One Tree" and look for the spur when you get near it. There were no views on the peak, none ascending, and none descending other than clouds. After signing the register, we returned along the road. Despite the lack of views, it was an enjoyable scramble to the top with cool weather in the 50s that was never quite cold.

The clouds were low and filled the forest

The firebreak/use trail leading to Trabuco Peak

Shelby resting before heading up to the peak.

The nearly hidden use trail on the left leading to the register, benchmark, and "The One Tree"

Trabuco Peak register and benchmark

Benchmark showing the dividing line between counties

See Also:
Trabuco Peak via West Horsethief Trail

Mt. San Jacinto and Miller Peak

HPS Star Emblem Peak
Hiked: 4/7/2013
Distance: 9.9 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 10834' (San Jacinto), 10400' (Miller)
Prominence: 8319' (San Jacinto), 0' (Miller)
Elevation Gain: 2400'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.92
Round trip time: 6 hours
Recommended water: 100 oz.
Parking/Fees: $24 Aerial Tram
Difficulty: Moderate

I was planning to hike San Jacinto at the end of April on the Devil's Slide trail, but our family decided to take a trip to Palm Springs during spring break so I got there in early April. Devil's Slide is on the south side of the mountain, an unreasonable trip around, so I asked my wife to drop me off at the tram for my first hike to San Jacinto. Until the day before, I was expecting substantial snow on the mountain, but a helpful post by someone on the San Jacinto forum suggested that I would not need snow shoes, so I left some of my winter gear at home.

I took the first tram up at 8:00 am, sharing it with only 4 other people. I registered at the ranger station for my day hike permit and the ranger told me to expect a slushy hike. Temperature was in the low 50s at Mountain Station and hovered between 50F and 60F all day. I began with 4 layers and ended up with 3 after an hour. This was my first trip to San Jacinto State Park and the pine trees and size of the park were both a little surprising to me. I started hitting small patches of snow before 9000' and it started becoming an issue after Round Valley. The altitude also made me work harder than usual for this amount of climbing. There were knee deep post holes left by other people in many places, but the snow was mostly frozen and firm on the way up, so I only hit one or two spots where I sank up to my knees. Past Wellmans' Divide, I lost and found the trail a few times, eventually heading toward the gully between Jean Peak and San Jacinto to rediscover it.

The short side trip to Miller Peak led to an easy class 2 scramble to the summit plaques. The trail was now mostly clear all the way to the stone cabin near the peak. There were some great views from Miller Peak and it was worth the diversion. When I arrived at the stone cabin, I signed the San Jacinto summit register and marveled at the bunk beds and other random stuff in the cabin. Leaving the cabin, I started the next class 2 boulder scramble to get to San Jacinto Peak. The snow was deep in some places between the boulders making foot placement important, but the climb was not difficult. San Jacinto Peak was an altitude record for me at 10834', a few hundred feet higher than Mt. Baldy. I hope it is a short lived record with San Gorgonio and Mt. Whitney planned for the summer. I took photos and a video on the summit, ate lunch, and was getting ready to head down as two other hikers made it up. They had come from LA and Sacramento and from our conversation, were pretty experienced in the SoCal mountains.

After leaving San Jacinto, I scouted around the first bump on the way to Jean Peak and the snow looked to be more of an obstacle than I wanted to fight, so I continued down. I tried to follow the trail I had lost back to Wellman's Divide, but soon lost it again and ended up heading cross country a few miles, generally following the path of least snow resistance. I intersected the trail again shortly before Round Valley and followed it back to the tram. The cross country short cut reduced the normal round trip distance by a mile.

I tested out several pieces of new gear on this trip. I had some cheap REI gaiters that did a solid job keeping snow out of my boots when landing up to my knees. I had a used 686 snowboard jacket (from Craigslist) that was warm and functional. I had a new Marmot Eiger 36 liter pack that kept the weight balanced, but I wished it had more organization. There are three small zippered areas in the lid, and the rest is one big storage area so I was digging around for stuff more than usual. Finally, I had a Therm-a-rest sit pad that I didn't need because there were plenty of dry boulders to sit on throughout the hike.

Snow capped San Jacinto on the way to the tram

Coffman's Crag from the tram

Boulder paradise in Long Valley

Stream crossing near Long Valley

Plaques on Miller Peak summit

View to the desert from Miller Peak

San Jacinto from Miller Peak

Last sign before San Jacinto Peak, almost buried in snow

Stone cabin near San Jacinto Peak

Inside the stone cabin

San Jacinto Peak

Benchmark

Panorama from San Jacinto Peak

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Crystal Cove Back Country

Hiked: 3/31/2013
Distance: 7.2 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 915' (high point on this loop)
Elevation Gain: 1400' (1000' out, 400' on return)
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.12
Round trip time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 48 oz.
Parking/Fees: $15 State Parks
Difficulty: Moderate

The Crystal Cove Back Country, like a lot of popular state and county parks, is a maze of trails. Parking is available behind El Moro Elementary off P.C.H. (Hwy 1) in Newport Beach. Complete information is available on the Crystal Cove web site. The back country trails are generally mellow and offer a variety of family friendly loop possibilities. The ranger station is nicely appointed and has a collection of local stuffed flora, including a mountain lion and coyote.

The outing started as a rare family hike, but Parker soon lost interest, leaving Shelby and I to complete the following loop route:
No Dogs Trail
No Name Ridge
Ticketron past Deer Canyon Campground (single track)
Rattlesnake Trail (single track)
West Cut Across
Poles Trail
No Dogs Trail

Out of the entire route, only Ticketron and Rattlesnake were single track trails. All other trails were as wide as roads, well graded, and crowded. Because the park is so popular, expect to be sharing the trails with a lot of people, especially on weekends. Even in the most remote parts of the park, I never felt like I was in wilderness because there were almost always people in view. While there was some nice scenery near the ocean and some interesting geology, the crowds and expensive parking were a downer. The Center Benchmark is along the Rattlesnake Trail and we went right over it at a jog. I didn't bother to stop and take a photo.

Tip: pay the parking fee and display it prominently on your dash. While we were there, 3 people got ticketed for not paying the parking fee. The fine was a hefty $71.

Pacific Ocean from the No Dogs trail

Leisa and Parker on the No Dogs trail

Cave on the Ticketron trail

Shelby on the Rattlesnake trail

Aliso-Wood Canyon to the Top of the World

Hiked: 3/24/2013
Distance: 9 miles round trip on road and trail
Summit Elevation: 1041' (Top of the World)
Elevation Gain: 1091' (out and back)
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.87
Round trip time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: $3 OC Parks
Difficulty: Moderate

The Aliso and Wood Canyon Park is in my back yard, two miles from my house, and I know every nook and cranny. The hills were a good training ground for me before I graduated to bigger things. There are many interconnected trails, but most are well signed, and maps and directions are available online at the OC Parks site. The Park is very popular on weekends with mountain bikers and the trails are ideal for biking. If you plan to hike there on the weekend, expect lots of bike traffic.

From the trailhead, there is a monotonous 1.5 mile section of flat, paved road. At about the half mile mark, there is a dirt trail on the right that parallels the road and is more pleasant to travel on than the pavement. This 1.5 mile section is quickly and easily dispatched on a bike, but is a drag for hikers who have to deal with it out and back. To save time, I jogged most of the road section and was pleased with my 3.6 mph average over the entire 9 mile course.

There are a few attractions to see after leaving the road and heading into Wood Canyon. The first is a short signed trail leading to Cave Rock, a large formation with multiple small and shallow caves. It returns to the main trail in about a quarter mile. A little further is a signed trail leading to Dripping Cave, a former hideout for bandits. Dripping Cave is large enough for a group of people but is still shallow, no more than 20' deep. From Dripping Cave, I continued on until it intersected the Mathis Canyon Trail, then took an immediate left on the Oak Grove Trail. Oak Grove offers some shade and turns into the Car Wreck Trail, which has an actual wrecked car on it, a good mile from the nearest road. I still don't know how the car got this far down into the canyon.

After passing the car, the Car Wreck Trail gets steep and all of the elevation gain comes in the next 1.5 miles. Follow Car Wreck Trail until it hits the Mathis Canyon Trail, then make a left to the junction with the West Ridge Trail and left again all the way to the Top of the World in Laguna Beach. At the Top of the World, there is a park, nice restroom facilities, a great view of the Pacific Ocean and the City of Laguna Beach. The high point is actually Carolyn Wood Knoll about a 100 feet off to the right. On a clear day, you have a great view of Saddleback Mountain, but today was pretty hazy and it was hard to make out either Saddleback or the ocean. On my return trip, I stayed on the Mathis Canyon Trail.

I almost classified this hike as easy, but the distance was a little much and all the elevation comes in about 1.5 miles after the car wreck. A family friendly hike could be done by turning around at Dripping Cave or the car wreck and bypassing all of the elevation gain.

Start of the dirt trail that parallels the road in Aliso Canyon

Dripping Cave

Oak Grove Trail and Mathis Canyon Trail split, go left on Oak Grove to get to Car Wreck Trail

Shady section of the Oak Grove Trail

Car wreck on Car Wreck Trail

Looking back down the Car Wreck Trail near the top

Pacific Ocean and Laguna Beach through the haze at the Top of the World

Alta Laguna Park at the Top of the World

A rattlesnake crossing the road on a previous trip into Aliso Canyon

Bobcat ready to pounce in Aliso Canyon, also on a previous trip