Cornell Peak and Harvard Peak

HPS Star Emblem Peak
Hiked: 7/3/2019
Distance: 4.4 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 9750' (Cornell), 9550' (Harvard)
Elevation Gain: 1752'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.4
Round trip time: 4 hours
Recommended water: 80 oz.
Parking/Fees: $8 Parking at Palm Springs Aerial Tramway plus $27 Tram Ticket
Difficulty: Moderate

I drove to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to climb Cornell Peak (HPS #21) and Harvard Peak in the San Jacinto Wilderness. Since my last visit, a new $8 parking fee had been levied and the cost of a tram ticket was now $27. Ouch. I filled out a permit at the ranger station and headed toward Round Valley. At the second Round Valley sign at a creek crossing, I veered right onto the unofficial Sid Davis Trail. Once I left the main trail, I was alone the rest of the day. I followed the Sid Davis into Tamarack campground and drank in the pines and granite. I appreciated again how beautiful it was above Mountain Station. From the campground, I went up a shallow drainage, changing course whenever I spotted an infrequent cairn. It got steeper the higher I went. With about 100' to go, it became mostly class 2/3 rock scrambling. I got off course a couple of times, accidentally going too far west and returning east for easier rock. Just below the register, I climbed the wrong side, a slightly more difficult class 3 route up the more exposed side. The register was in a pair of cans below the chockstone and chimney. The number of visitors was not huge leaving the book less than half full. Scraps of old registers filled the bottom of the can. Although the Sierra Club considers it optional, I turned my attention to the true summit.

Sid Davis Trail is right of the boulder, behind the wooden beams

Stay right of this outcrop

Above the tree line

Slightly off route

Class 3 to the register

I pulled a sewn 18' cordelette (9' after looping) out of my pack and starting working on the chockstone. From reading other hiker reports, I expected the chockstone to be the crux. There were some reasonable holds on both sides of the chimney so I considered it only stiff class 3. The exposure to a long fall didn't seem so bad until I got above the chockstone. The final move to gain the true summit was a class 4 friction move to straddle the highest block then inch your way up the last 6' of gain. This block was shaped like a steep house roof (angled slabs on both sides). After studying it for a couple of minutes, I couldn't figure out how to make the move safely or how to protect it. The block was longer than 9' so I couldn't rope it with the cordelette. My brain did the risk calculus and called it off. I stretched my arm to get my hand above the summit and thought that was good enough.

I dropped down to the saddle between Cornell and Harvard, then continued along the ridge to Harvard. I bouldered past a false summit, then around a couple trees to the high point. Cornell looked impressive from Harvard, a pointy spire between Jean Peak and San Jacinto. The register for Harvard was in a pink tuperware container. It was fairly thin and also fairly new. I couldn't get the pen to work so I didn't sign it. After resting on Harvard a while, I headed back to the saddle with Cornell, then down the way I came up. I returned on the Sid Davis Trail to end a short but exciting adventure.

Chockstone

Climbing above

Harvard from Cornell

False summit on Harvard

Cornell from Harvard

Harvard summit

One mylar balloon removed

Magazine Mountain-Signal Hill, AR

State High Point
Hiked: 6/30/2019
Distance: 1 mile round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 2753'
Prominence: 2133'
Elevation Gain: 168'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.1
Round trip time: 20 minutes
Recommended water: 0 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Mt. Magazine Road
Difficulty: Easy

With a short break in family visitation duties, I was able to sneak up to the Arkansas state high point. Mount Magazine is a long plateau with a minor bump called Signal Hill which is the high point. A groomed half mile trail is accessible on Mt. Magazine Road. I went in my street clothes with no gear except my phone. It was a quick walk to the high point with a memo pad in a mail box serving as the register. A large sign proclaims the Arkansas high point along with a silver benchmark which has the elevation (but not the name). There are no views from the wooded summit and even the views from the scenic lookouts on highway 309 were not great. I didn't check out the cliff areas on the north side so maybe the views are better there. It was underwhelming for a state high point, but it was a P2K nonetheless and kicked my P-index up to 150. I started my GPS track late so it is a little short, but a GPS shouldn't be needed on a small hill surrounded on all sides by road.

On the summit

Dozens of visitors reached the summit ahead of me today

From one of the scenic overlooks

Signs you might be in Arkansas (insert Jeff Foxworthy joke)

Cavanal Mountain, OK

Hiked: 6/28/2019
Distance: Drive up
Summit Elevation: 2385'
Prominence: 1765'
Elevation Gain: 0'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0
Round trip time: N/A
Recommended water: 0 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on County Road D1340
Difficulty: Easy

I passed through Poteau, OK on the way to visit family in Fayetteville, AR. I attended grades 8-12 here and made many trips by car to the top of Cavanal. A paved road goes all the way the top (Witteville, then County Road D1340) with custom homes built along the lower half. The broad, flat summit area is crammed with radio towers and a lookout platform with picnic tables. Locally, it was called Cavanal Hill, the world's highest hill, but this was just folklore. A sign at the top erroneously lists the elevation as 1999', but the USGS named it Cavanal Mountain with an elevation of 2385'. Views are non-existent due to tree coverage, except for limited views from the lookout point. After the pavement ended, there were several dirt roads. I drove down one looking for the old fire lookout tower, but couldn't get too far in my low clearance rental sedan. I did see two deer. They had long, white tails, very different than the California mule deer I am used to seeing. Cavanal is Oklahoma's second most prominent peak -- a nice bonus.

Technically, Cavanal was my first "real" hike as an 11 mile round trip starting at my friend Darren's house a mile away from the base back in 1983. I was still in college and wanted to test myself by jogging to the top and back. I jogged the flat parts and maybe a half mile of uphill before walking the rest of the way. I can't remember exactly how long it took me, but my guess is between 4-5 hours. I remember being sore the next couple of days since jogging/hiking long distances was not a thing I did then. There are many more houses along the road now, and many more radio towers. It also seems smaller than it did to the 1983 version of myself. The whole experience was quite a nostalgic trip.

Cavanal from the elementary school

Local lore, actual elevation 2385'

View from the lookout platform

Goat Peak

Hiked: 6/27/2019
Distance: 3 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 1728'
Elevation Gain: 1167'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.0
Round trip time: 2 hours
Recommended water: 24 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Quiet Valley Lane
Difficulty: Easy

I drove to Poway for a short hike to Goat Peak, one of the small mountains on the opposite side of highway 67 from Woodson and Iron Mountain in San Diego County. I parked east of Goat Peak in a cul-de-sac at the end of Quiet Valley Lane. A trail took off from there, following Poway Creek. There were several dry crossings and it was easy to follow even though vegetation was intruding slightly into the trail. The bottom part of the trail is shared with horses who left ample evidence of their passing. I climbed steeply out of the creek toward a small plateau. As I neared the plateau, I spotted what I thought was a fresh pile of horse scat, but as I got closer saw was a large red diamond rattlesnake. Red diamonds are my favorite brand of rattlesnake and although this one was more brownish than red in color, it was beautiful. This was the first red diamond I'd seen in the wild. It was coiled and resting on the edge of the 2' wide trail, facing the trail. There was thick brush on both sides so I tapped my hiking pole on the ground but could not get it to move. After a few minutes, I gave in, bushwhacking uphill behind and around it, getting back to the trail about 25' beyond. I marked a waypoint on my GPS so I wouldn't stumble on it on the way back.

Start

Red diamond rattlesnake in the trail

Close up, what a fine looking snake!

Goat Peak ahead

From the plateau, it was a short hike to the base of the summit rocks, then a short class 2 scramble to the top. There was a small register in a glass jar. I signed in an ate the peanut butter and honey sandwich I brought. Goat had nice views of the more popular Poway mountains and hazy views of larger mountains to the south. The June gloom burned off into a sunny morning. I had to get back to pack for a trip to visit family, so I started down. I slowed to a crawl as I neared the mark where I left the snake. It was harder to see from this side, but I found it exactly where I left it. I decided to persuade it to move by rolling small rocks on the ground at it. The first one bounced off it with no reaction, the second one missed. The third one turned it into an anger ball. It flipped into striking position, ignited the rattle, and slowly backed down the trail, loudly hissing at the same time. The display was very impressive and the combination of the rattle and hissing was visceral. This was a proud and fierce representative of the species. I tried to get a video, but bungled my camera from adrenaline. Still kicking myself over that. It retreated into the brush on the right, but continued to rattle and hiss. I couldn't tell where it was so I ended up bushwhacking on the other side to give it plenty of room. All I had accomplished was pissing it off and moving it from a comfy spot. That was a poor outcome for both of us. The rest of the way out was uneventful. Goat was a fun little peak, with or without the red diamond friend.

Summit

Woodson and North Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain

Looking back down the creek

Iron Spring Mountain and Beauty Peak

Hiked: 6/7/2019
Distance: 9.9 miles round trip on trail and use trail
Summit Elevation: 5755' (Iron Spring), 5548' (Beauty)
Prominence: 1075' (Iron Spring), 388' (Beauty)
Elevation Gain: 2843'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.2
Round trip time: 6 hours 40 minutes
Recommended water: 120 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Tule Peak Road
Difficulty: Moderate

Iron Spring and Beauty are in north San Diego County. Like Rabbit, these were on my want-to-do list for a while and finally made it to the gonna-do-today list. Both are HPS summits not far above the 5000' minimum. I drove in on Tule Peak Road and found it very rough and rutted. Only after the hike did I check the Sierra Club driving directions that avoid the poor section of road. A sedan can make it to the starting point.

I started up the overgrown trail looking for the major gully. The grass was knee high in places and the path was not clear. Once I found the gully, a better use trail appeared that went up the left side. After that, it followed the drainage up to a large clearing and intersection with Iron Spring Trail. On the way to the clearing, I brushed off 10 ticks. I was on pace for a record setting tick day. Iron Spring Trail was wide and clear. I continued south toward Beauty and casually walked right past the use trail junction. I reversed course and marked a waypoint at the junction to help find my way out later. The use trail was clipped most of the way and there were frequent cairns, but it was still fairly difficult to follow. Navigation was non-trivial and it slowed me down. It was narrow and overgrown in many places. After going over a couple of bumps, I got to the base of Beauty. The final ascent was quite steep and ended with a class 2 scramble. There was a benchmark and reference mark on top and a few HPS registers. I signed in and took my first break, clearing foxtails from my shoes and socks. Views were nicer than expected. Then I headed back toward Iron Spring Mountain.

Start

The gully

Approaching Beauty

Class 2 finish

Looking through the glare at Iron Spring

At the clearing, I took the Iron Spring Trail the other direction a short distance before reaching the Iron Spring use trail on the left. This use trail was easier to follow than the one to Beauty, but still had narrow overgrown places. By this time, I had attracted a swarm of bothersome bugs coming back from Beauty. I broke down and put on the bug net. The bug net was the best $3 I've ever spent. I kept it on all the way to the Iron Spring summit. The steepest part of this trail was the climb up and over Peak 5725. Then, it was just another quarter mile of relatively flat terrain to Iron Spring with its thousand feet of prominence. The use trail got poor at the very end with tall grass refilling my shoes and socks with foxtails. I didn't find any benchmarks on the Iron Spring summit, but I flipped through the register and noted the 25th and final signature from Mars Bonfire. I took my second break and rested up for the return. I only picked up three more ticks on the way down for a total of 13, not coming close to my 21-tick record. I wasn't sure I had brushed all of them off until I got home in the shower. No bites today. The GPS was useful on this trip for the trickiest spots.

Approaching Iron Spring

Looking across to Beauty Peak

Back down the gully

Would you like to know more...?