It was the last day of a 17-day roadtrip, starting in the Las Vegas area and
ending up in Orange County. My wife was in Anaheim to ref a volleyball
tournament, so I met up with her for the weekend. The previous day had been a
very wet Saturday that kept me indoors all day, save for an hour I spent
outside to rotate the jeep's tires. Today the rain had stopped but it was
heavily overcast, the trails muddy and the brush wet. Still, I got out for
a few hikes that gave me something to do while the wife works. Rough life, I
know.
5-7-20 BM
A front range summit in the Santa Ana Mtns, the peak is
located northeast and above the
community of Modjeska at the junction of Santiago Creek and Harding Canyon. I
parked just before the bridge over Santiago Creek
which was flowing fast and
brown from the previous day's storm. I followed a Michael Sullivan gpx track
from PB - he seems to be my go-to source for SoCal tracks. It starts up
an old road
(Mark Rd on Google Maps) between a couple of homes. There is a No
Trespassing sign that seems to be regularly ignored, judging from the compact
tread that has developed on the use trail. The old road goes past a few old,
open gates
that suggest a home was planned up in this side canyon at some time
in the distant past. The route climbs about 900ft in 1.5mi, growing steeper in
the second half
where the route follows an old firebreak, now fairly rutted.
The summit has an OC benchmarkl
(thus the odd name) and a decent view save for the day's overcast.
Irvine Mesa
This is a small spit of land at the confluence of the Santiago and Silverado
Creek drainages. The land appears to be owned by the OC Parks dept, but is
signed as Closed and No Trespassing. There is a dirt road going over
this exceedingly minor summit that can be accessed from two points along
Santiago Canyon Rd. This seemed a little too conspicuous to me, so I used a
route up the northeast side, a steep cross-country jaunt that
looks like it would be quite brushy
but works well enough. The biggest problem was the water-ladden
brush that had me fairly soaked before I was done. Though steep, the distance
is less than a tenth of a mile and took all of six minutes for the ascent. I
took a few photos and beat a retreat back down to the road.
Can't really recommend this one.
Peak 2,301ft
Located above the town of Silverado at the confluence of Silverado and Ladd
Canyons, the 0.8mi hike climbs 1,100ft. I used another Sullivan gpx track that
starts on the north side of Silverado Canyon Rd, across from the Silverado
Canyon Market and west of the post office. There is a sign that says No
Trespassing, but this appears to be for the adjacent empty lot.
A use trail
goes northwest to meet an old firebreak that then ascends northeast
to the summit. About half way up the ridge one finds a USFS sign
indicating the forest boundary. Who owns the lower part of the ridge is a small
mystery, but they don't seem to mind the traffic on the ridge. I found a rusty
metal box at the summit with a new register and lots of
geocache-like trash as well. One
can continue up the ridge for several miles until you reach the crest of the
range near Bedford Peak. There is also a PB-only point at 3,100ft, but I had
no interest in visiting that low prominence point, so I turned back and
returned the way I came.
Peak 1,470ft
This summit is located in the Chino Hills. The starting point at
the end of Lilac Lane
above Olinda Village is a TH for Chino Hills State Park, but
not part of the main park and trail network. An old road that used to
be paved, goes up at a reasonable gradient, climbing about 500ft in 1.5mi. The
highpoint is just east of an old tower festooned with telecom
equipment and surrounded by a fence and razor wire. I went around the fence to
take in what views
the weather would allow before heading back down the same
way. I finished up by 1:15p and headed back to Anaheim where the wife was
working. My job would be to ferry her back to San Jose while she slept, a most
workable arrangement...