Continued...
Forest Road 2N49 follows the Pacific Crest (not to be confused with the PCT)
on the long ridgeline extending
southeast from Cajon Mtn in the San Bernardino Mountains. I had been on this
ridge back in 2010 on my 50th birthday, tagging the collection of four HPS
summits found along it. TomB had done a similar tour a few years later. Today
I was interested in five unnamed summits that we had skipped, and since three
of our companions hadn't been to any of the HPS summits, we would repeat those
for good measure. The road is suitable for most high-clearance vehicles. We had
camped the night at the start of 2N49, about a mile west of Silverwood Lake, at
the end of paved Cleghorn Rd. Five of us were ready to head out in the morning
at 7a, piling into the two Jeeps for the day's adventure.
Peak 5,220ft
This was our first stop after reaching the crest in about 15min. Less than
1/4mi from the summit, it seemed like this would be a quick one. The satellite
view is promising, showing the west side of the peak to be mostly open
terrain, while the east and south sides have heavy brush. What it doesn't show
is that the west side is steep, dangerous terrain. We would have to thread a
route up from the southwest. Because the brush was thick at the saddle where
we parked, we had to first drop about 50ft off the north side to get around this
initial blockage until we could east across the slope and then
. The five of us all took variations on the effort,
splitting up, rejoining with one another, and mostly struggling with the brush.
TomG favored the steeper terrain with less brush and was the first to reach the
summit. Jeff and I reached the summit ridge south of the summit and spent some
time finding a route through found there. Much of Jeff's
peakbagging was honed in Lake County's brush-covered summits, and it was clear
that he had much experience in such terrain. He seemed to have a knack for
finding ways through, so I let him forge ahead of me. TomB was in shorts and
happy to let others beat a route through the scratchy stuff. Iris was some
distance behind, but found we'd forged through the brush.
Bloodletting seemed unavoidable for everyone. We got to in
about 25min, finding brush well over head level and poor views. TomG collected
rocks for we would leave in.
was much better, now that we'd beaten a path that
looked like a trail through the densest parts. The roundtrip would take us more
than an hour and our plans for a dozen summits was looking unlikely.
It turns out that this was the only real bushwhack we had all day and
the rest of the summits went much, much better.
Cajon Lookout - Cajon Mountain - Peak 5,420ft
We moved the Jeeps only about 1/4mi up the road to a junction with the road
leading to the Cajon Lookout site. The road is in good condition but is
to keep out vehicles. This one would not be easily defeated like
yesterday's, leaving us with a mile-long walk out to the lookout site and
. It was the longest of the day's outing, which isn't saying
much. We spent about 20min hiking the road out where a
lookout once stood. There are a few small telecom installations, but no lookout
anymore. at is labeled CALO, perhaps
for CAjon LOokout. There are nice views of Cajon Canyon to the
and . After a short visit, we backtracked
on the road to find the clipped HPS route to Cajon Mtn. A first effort quickly
dead-ended, but then we noticed a pair of marking
the start further back on the road which turned out to be what we were looking
for. was - not surprising when
we found we were the first visitors of the year - but serviceable, and taking
all of six minutes to find . We found the Mars Bonfire
register with many, many entries, including previous visits
by and TomB. We returned and
followed it nearly back to the gate, pausing for the more challenging summit
on this hike, Peak 5,420ft.
The topo map shows an old road going up to the summit from the northwest, but
there was no sign of this anywhere. The satellite view shows the summit ridge
mostly clear, but getting there is a bit of a trick. The north side seemed to
offer our best chance, and it was from this direction that we approached it.
Our route went up , then to
avoid brush blocking access to the summit ridge. This led around nicely to the
east side and then up to without any need to
bushwhack, mostly on deer trails. Once on the summit ridge, there is a clear
path and easy walking to reach in about 15min. The
highpoint is nicely open to views looking south and west, and we left a second
here. The satellite view appears to offer another option off
the South Ridge which some of us wanted to explore. Since our vehicles were at
the north end, TomB and I went the ascent route to
, offering to pick up the others at the
saddle on the south side of the summit. This worked nicely for TomB and I, not
so much for the others. The southside route works well for a while, but then
devolves into a brushy mess. TomB and I chuckled as we watched them start into
a wall of dense matter before retreating. Fortunately they didn't have to
go back over the summit again, instead finding a bail route off the east side
down to the road, after which they had merely to follow the road south to the
saddle to find the vehicles. The north side route was definitely better, all
agreed.
Peak 5,481ft
We drove a short distance further to a saddle east of Peak 5,481ft, only a
quarter mile from the summit. Brush blocks the start along the East Ridge,
but backtracking a short distance finds one a deer trail
that goes nicely up to where is found
going all the way to in less than 15min. Mark Adrian had
left here two years earlier, our party the only other one
to sign in.
Peak 5,514ft
The next peak in line is about a mile ESE of the previous one. A short drive to
a saddle on the peak's NE side would be our starting point. Again, the start
is a bit hard to find, but going through forest on the right soon leads up to
where leads to ,
taking about 20min. It was pretty warm, so we for our
break before heading back the same way.
Sugarpine Mountain
A mile east of the previous peak, Sugarpine is an HPS drive-up with a
sufficient vehicle, via a rough road forking from the saddle northwest of the
summit. Ours vehicles proved sufficient, delivering us to
without breaking a sweat. No register was discovered.
Bailey Peak - Bailey BM
Bailey Peak is an easy five minute hike from the saddle on its
. There are half-buried in the
brush that have a class 3 move. We found partly
hidden on the north side of the rocks.
Bailey BM
Bailey BM is just south of Bailey Peak with a gated road leading to the summit.
Our skilled locksmiths were able to defeat the lock and chain, allowing us to
drive to , or nearly so. There are telecom installations
north and of the that are easily
surmounted. The offers no real hindrance.
Peak 5,598ft
There is a spur road leading to the east ridge of Peak 5,598ft. The road is no
longer driveable, but can be hiked in combination with a clear path up the East
Ridge to reach .
We used a shorter route up
southwest of the summit where a faint use trail offers
through the brush and . Mark Adrian had left
on this one in 2021 as well. Just over ten minutes to reach the summit.
Monument Peak
This is another . There is for the Mohave
Indian Trail that was placed in 1931. A was added atop it in
1934. No register was found.
Jobs Peak
Jobs Peak is an ex-HPS summit located about 2mi northeast of Monument Peak.
Getting between them
appears easy, thanks to Forest Road 2N43 that
descends Sawpit Canyon to the community of Cedarpines Park where Jobs is
located. A sign indicating Road Closed had been set aside at the top of the
canyon where we started down. It's not in the best shape, but any
high-clearance vehicle
should be able to manage it. Just before reaching pavement below, there is a
washout that has undercut half of the dirt roadway. A stop sign on a tree marks
the location. We got out to survey it, then decided we could
with
careful driving. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Not sure if they plan
to ever fix this, but I could see it being permanently closed in the future.
Jobs Peak is the highpoint of this mountain community with a water tank holding
the highground. We drove to the top, noting
are found inside
the non-trivial fencing. I had gone over the fence on my first visit with Adam
Jantz 13 years ago, so felt no need to breach it a second time. None of my
companions felt the need either (especially with the area surrounded by homes),
so we left it untrammeled and headed back to Silverwood Lake and our camp.
Continued...