This weekend a few of us met up for some camping, hiking, eating and a little drinking. I met Sean on Friday at Chilao campground, arriving shortly before a fabulous sunset graced the western skies behind Josephine Peak. We sat up for a while in the spacious site, having some tequila and roasting a few marshmallows over my little Solo stove. Saturday morning dawned clear, the late season lightening of the skies meant we could sleep in for a while before rising to have breakfast. We drove up to the trail/road crossing, stopping at the fire station to fill water bottles at the only access point. Nate, Justina and Forest soon joined us and we headed up the rocky trail toward Horse Flat where we took a well-deserved break. From there the sign shows 2 miles to Hillyer while John Robinson says it is just 1 mile, either way it was in front of us to be conquered. A few other people were in the area climbing the impressive groups of boulders, along with mountain bikers mostly going electric. The actual summit is hard to define, we chose to park near a large group of rocks in the middle of the large mostly flat area. We had the usual grilled cheese up there, this time with simple cheddar along with garlic mayo, avocado, tomatoes and spinach leaves, also topped with Exxtra Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Goldfish. Only the two additional sandwiches got the olive tapenade as I forgot to include that condiment when first unpacking. After some rock hopping and frisbee tossing it was time to head back down, where we were entertained by kicking some of the huge pinecones for about a mile. Nate and family had another (likely) less-interesting gathering to attend so they took off, while Sean and I replenished our water supply from the fire station. Matthew arrived shortly before sunset, soon followed by Chris and Willow. We all sat around the table chatting for a while before breaking out the food to have a small taco feast which of course included more tequila. Dima rolled in (literally, on his bike) much later, fortunately he was not too picky about the food choices and finished off most of what was left over. Afterward the entertainment included sampling six different flavors of licorice and sitting around the Solo to burn marshmallows and eat s'mores. A warmer evening made for a comfortable sleep, everyone else was still out while I got up once again to watch the sunrise. All too soon we packed up the site and went in different directions.
Sunset
Sunrise
On the trail to Hillyer, looking back to where we parked
Nearing Horse Flat. The dry rocky ground here has a lot more pine trees than the canyons I usually see filled with Oak
Hillyer's rocky top
The brain trust picking a route
Summit area, we chose the rocks on the left side
Lunch
I managed to get this frisbee through the gauntlet
King of all the world (song by The Old 97's)
Pirate portrait
Sean and I headed over to Charlton Flat, where we found a closed gate leading to the Vetter Mountain trail. Since it was nearby, Devil's Peak made a nice alternate so we drove up the fire road to begin our trek. Walking up the last old firebreak was something of a route-finding challenge, this side of the hill is not seeing much usage and is rather overgrown with plenty of deadfall to trip over. Reaching the Rabbitbrush-covered summit, we unsuccessfully scouted around for a register and took another nice break. Views from up here were great, stretching from San Jacinto to Catalina Island, a distance of over 100 miles. On the descent we took a side route up to visit the observatory, noting that all the cameras are still working even though it does not appear to get regular visitors. From there we drove to Monrovia and celebrated with a fine Wendy's feast, including the free junior frosty treats.
Just another great weekend in the San Gabes, thanks to all that attended....
Fire road to begin this hike to Devil's Peak (Cal Topo lists it as Devil Peak)
Summit ahead
Rabbitbrush was nice to look at, not as nice to walk through
Sean on top of Devil's Peak
We flagged the summit cairn
Catalina Island out in the great Pacific Ocean
Stony Ridge Observatory, founded 1957
"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
