A year ago, the Sierra Club's LPC section decided to add another summit
to their peak
list, an exceedingly modest summit in the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological
Reserve. I was down in the San Diego area for the Christmas holiday,
about an hour's drive from the reserve, so headed up there to pay it
a visit. My daughter joined me for the morning hike in the reserve but
declined for the afternoon one.
Monument Hill / Mesa de Burro
We drove up I-15 to Wildomar where we turned southwest onto
Clinton Keith Rd, driving to the Visitor Center just past the
junction with Avenida La Cresta. There's a $4 per person charge to
visit the reserve that no
one actually checks to see if you've paid. I found this arrangement
so refreshingly trusting that I happily went inside and paid the fee
to the cashier. We then set off on the trail system, Jackie our
designated navigator with map in hand. This was her first time in this
role and she did quite well, not missing a turn at the numerous
junctions. We found a couple of benches atop
Monument Hill, overlooking
the ecological reserve. The area is brown and dormant as it waits for
the seasonal rains to return, not looking very pretty at this time of
year. A mile to the east was bonus peak, Mesa de Burro, that we
visited as well. There's no trail going to the top, but we found a game
trail that worked well enough. The summit
is flat, much as one would expect
from the name, no more special than Monument Hill. We spent over two
hours covering the 6mi around the trail system (almost no elevation
gain), an easy enough way to spend the morning.
Peak 1,070ft
After driving back to Rancho Bernardo (with a stop at the Honey Baked
store to pick up a ham), I dropped Jackie off and went east to the
Poway area to tackle an unnamed summit in there. This turned out to
be slightly trickier than I had expected. There is a road leading to
the water tank at the summit, but access is a bit tough since the
Heritage community
is gated and not exactly welcoming. I drove next
door to the Madera Golf Course to hike from there. This
involved hiking a good distance along the various golf cart paths.
I was doing a good job keeping out of the way of those playing the
course, but managed to draw the attention of the course marshall who
drove up in his cart to ask if he could help me. About 10yrs my senior,
he was a kindly man and we got on well. He was surprised to find out I
was just there to hike and incredulous when I told him where I was
trying to get to. "You can't climb up there!" he exclaimed, and it took
a bit of effort to convince him I was not only serious, but capable as
well. I was only 15min from the summit at this point and found it
very amusing that he thought it so difficult. "You're in better shape
than me!" He ended up giving me a ride in his car through the rest of
the property for my own safety. I assured him I would return via
another route to keep him from having to rescue me a second time. He
dropped me off at the highest point and after crossing a brushy dry
gully, I landed on a dirt road. This turned out to be the
Old Coach Trail
which can be accessed from a TH about a mile down the road from
the golf course. So it appears that one can legally access the area
and the summit with proper planning. I took the trail to the adjacent
neighborhood (very nice homes here) and followed the
service road to the water tank at the top. The north side of
the tank has a class 5 rock that I thought was the highpoint.
The granite was a bit friable, making it a bit sketchy, but I found a
way up without hurting myself. Only after descending and walking around
the tank did I discover that the highpoint is on the south
side, an easy walk-up. I took a few pictures overlooking the
developing landscape (they always
seem to have new housing developments going up around
every peak I visit in the San Diego area) before heading back down
through the gated community. Silliness over, I returned to the family
in Rancho Bernardo...