Sat, Aug 10, 2002
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Etymology | Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | Profiles: 1 2 |
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After a fine visit to San Diego with much Filipino food and catered living with my in-laws,
three days had gone by and
it was time to return home. I decided I had time for one more county highpoint if I left
early enough. So I awoke at 3a while everyone else in the house still slept soundly, ate
breakfast, and headed north on I5. It took two hours for me to drive to Orange County and
the
Holy Jim Trailhead which leads to
Santiago Peak, the highpoint of the county. The peak
can be driven to the top by those equipped with 4WD, but 16mi RT hike with 4,000ft of climbing
is a fair alternative for those of us that are vehicularly challenged.
Starting at 5a by headlamp, I found myself heading out of the parking lot in the wrong
direction. If there was a sign directing me the right way I missed it in the dark, as I
crossed a bridge and wandered about some of the homes situated here at the end of the road.
Realizing my mistake after about 10 minutes, I crossed back over the bridge and headed up
another dirt road which began to follow the description in the guidebook. Finding the trailhead,
I hiked up the dry Holy Jim creekbed as the trail crossed several
times before climbing out of the canyon. Holy Jim was actually "Cussin' Jim" in the distant
past, one of the early settlers, but cartographers felt that name was inappropriate
for geological features and changed the name. No sense of humor, some of those cartographers.
I turned off the headlamp after half an hour, and the sun
set fire to the wispy clouds that
were sprinkled high in the atmosphere sometime around 6a. I climbed higher out of the canyon,
following contours in the
chaparral-covered hillsides, with views
opening up to
the southwest behind me.
Sunrise brought warmer temperatures and I was eager to get to the top before the heat of the
day set in.
After five miles the trail reaches the main ridge where it joins a dirt road that follows the
ridge to the summit. Three more miles and I reached the antenna-strewn summit at 8a. From
what I can tell, this is
the motherlode of telecommunications in
Southern California, probably the
entire state. There are half a dozen major installations, each one housing a rat's nest of
cables, dishes, and antennae. The views can be quite expansive, but it was hazy that day,
which I imagine it resembles for most of the summer months. To get views you have to walk
a quarter mile circle outside the installations, which I did in a relaxed fashion while I
ate a snack. I found the highpoint of the summit area (not obvious) where a
USGS marker showed
I had indeed climbed Santiago. After 40 minutes at the summit, I headed back down, alternately
jogging and walking as I went. Back at the Holy Jim Trail junction, I came across a
group of bikers who'd just finished
riding the trail up to the ridge and were taking a break. They passed me on the way down,
but as I was jogging and they had a few slow members that they periodically waited for, we
crossed paths several more times on the
way down.
Hiking the highpoints all over the Southland for the last few days, I'd come across discarded
toilet paper on a number of occasions
that caused me to take pause. I can't recall seeing
this phenomenon in the Sierra, but it seems that a portion of So. Cal. hikers find it
appropriate to wipe their asses and simply discard the used toilet paper alongside the trail.
I didn't know if I should find this funny or disgusting, but it made me wonder how the
rationalization process went that would lead to such behaviour. Maybe packing out the toilet
paper is too gross (I agree), burning it unsafe (it's a tinderbox everywhere you look), and
burying it is too much trouble. But no effort to discard it off the trail. And no signs of
poop anywhere. I would have guessed it was discarded by female hikers who had to simply
urinate, but the obvious brown spots seemed to discount that theory. So I'm somewhat baffled
at why there is just used toilet paper sticking to the brush. Did someone take a dump in the
bushes, walk back to the trail and realize they forgot to wipe? Did they take a dump on the
trail and kick it into the bushes? Nothing really made good sense. Someday I will have to
confront an avid Southern California hiker and see if they have any good theories for this
behaviour. But I digress. :)
Other bikers were on their way up all during my descent, and I realized this was a very
popular weekend mountain bike ride with the locals. The horribly rutted, 5 mile dirt road to
the trailhead seemed little deterrent. Back down through the
dry creekbed, then I reached
the trailhead at 10a. Not bad for a
16 mile hike I thought. As I prepared to leave I noticed
huge contingent of hikers,
primarily in their 20's, gathering at the parking lot. Some sort of hiking club from one of
the local universities or colleges I gathered, and after the last of about 15 cars filled the
parking lot to near capacity, I headed out, returning to San Jose many more hours of driving
later the same day. Temperatures reached well over 100F as I suffered overheating for the
first time in my car. With the outside temperatures so high, I found I could not climb hills,
drive over 70mph, and have the air conditioner on in any combination of two or more. Such
suffering - how the west was settled without air conditioning I'll never know.
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Santiago Peak
This page last updated: Sat Apr 7 17:05:04 2007
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