Continued...
Matt and I were camped off Old Hwy 80 in the southeast corner
San Diego County, less
than a mile from the border with Mexico. We had a brief visit from the
Border Patrol in the evening, checking up on what we were doing there
(camping) and what are plans were (hiking the next day). I had to be in
San Diego in the early afternoon to join up with family, giving me half
a day to tag a small handful of easy summits around the Jacumba area. I
had picked them all out a few days earlier from the PB website, most of
them from Mike Sullivan's TRs. After yesterday's mixed weather of
clouds in the morning and sunshine in the afternoon, had
returned and would hang about for the morning's hikes.
Peak 3,572ft
This is the closest summit in California to the Mexican border, less than
a few hundred yards. It was conveniently located directly above from
where we'd camped, so when we started out around 6:30a, we had simply to
lock up our cars and start hiking uphill, a distance of about half a
mile. The rounded peak has about 400ft of prominence, partially lying
within Mexico though the highpoint is in the US. As is usual near the
border, there is plenty of discarded trash from folks sneaking over from
Mexico and we counted more than a dozen gallon left by
angels to help the thirsty during their ordeal. Near the top, Matt spotted a
pair of which turned out to be five, all told. They seemed
only mildly skittish and after deciding we weren't a threat, mostly went back to
grazing while keeping one eye on us. To t of the summit lies a
large solar array on the US side while to the west is the Jacumba Valley and
the small border town of Jacumba, without a border crossing. A 15-foot rusting
steel wall runs across the valleys on both sides of the peak and partially
, as well. There are just down from
the saddle which suggests the wall is designed to keep out vehicles but
not really people. There is a large padlocked iron gate at the saddle
with one of the found on the other side. I thought we
might draw the attention of the border agents once again, but if we did,
no one was sent out to check on us.
Gray Mountain
This summit lies on the north side of Interstate 8, near the Jacumba exit
at the north end of Jacumba Valley. There are several service stations
and a Subway here, with lots of parking available. We on the
south side where more than a dozen other cars were similarly left, then
walked under before to Gray
Mtn, a 900-foot climb in a little more than half a mile. There is a good deal
of cactus on the lower slopes of the mountain, requiring lots of
bobbing and weaving, but not so bad as to be a real nuisance. The gray
skies seemed to go with the name of the mountain and when we got to
we found views hazy and poor, for the most part. There
was a register
at the summit, actually a terracache, mostly filled
with names I didn't recognize, though I did note Mike's entry and another
from the Monday Maniacs.
Round Mountain
This small summit is found a mile west of the same freeway exit we used
for Gray Mtn. We drove Matt's Subaru about half of that distance down
the dead-end dirt road that leads to the nudist colony on the north side of the
freeway. Our summit was on the south side of the freeway, so we simply parked
at off the main road and hiked the half mile distance
from there. Half of this is across the somewhat of Jacumba
Valley, then of the abandoned San Diego and Arizona
Eastern railroad, the same tracks that continue north through the Carrizo Gorge.
The south slope is an easier gradient, but we took more direct routes going up
and down the east side where the slope is quite steep but with decent footing.
There was flying at the north end overlooking the
freeway with the highpoint found a short distance to the south. This, too, had
, but it was just a bunch
of loose scraps and we didn't bother to examine the contents or leave
an entry. I think we picked the steepest possible descent route without
actually going down cliffs. All good fun.
Jacumba Peak
This was the easiest of the bunch and in some ways the most interesting.
It is not to be confused with the more famous DPS summit of Jacumba
Mountain which is some miles to the north. is a small,
unassuming hill on the north side of Jacumba, which used to be a stop
for the San Diego & Arizona Eastern RR. There are almost a dozen old
left alongside the tracks near where we parked. Some of them
are within a fence No Trespassing area that includes , but
the very old can be
on the opposite side of the road. There is a dirt road (gated,
no vehicles) that leads to which then leads to
in an easy mile. The summit has an old, portable
with a single chair on a swivel that looks to have been
manned at one time for spotting do-badders
coming across the border. Old cloth "blinds" are now tattered, hanging
from the frame, perhaps used to conceal whether the booth was occupied or
not. Evidently the Border Patrol has found more effective ways to
monitor illegal traffic. The sun was out by now, providing us with
of the surrounding mountain desert landscape. Our descent
route was more interesting than the roadway, directly off the South Ridge and
back across to the wash where we'd parked.
We drove back to the freeway exit where we'd left the van and parted
ways, myself to San Diego, Matt to further explore the Carrizo Gorge area
within Anza-Borrego State Park. I'd gotten used to having my friends
leave me at various times to continue desert trips on my own - I think
this was the first time that I've been the departing party, and I kinda
missed having to leave after 10 days of desert fun...
Continued...