EISPIRATEN

I recently joined the So. California Hikers, Backpackers, & Peakbaggers, Zé's group, to see if I could meet some more hardcore climbers than with the OCHBC.

Well, they are pretty hardcore all right. They charge up and down the local mountains a lot faster than I am comfortable doing. I came along with them on a hike that was supposed to tackle Cucamonga Peak as well as Ontario Peak from Icehouse Canyon, but it was all I could do to keep up with them to the top of Cucamonga Peak. I bailed at that point and headed back down to the trailhead as they continued on to Ontario Peak.

They were doing what I would call a conditioning hike, moving very fast with almost no stops, which is what I do during the week in the coastal hills near my home. When I am in the mountains, I prefer to move at a more stately pace, stopping frequently to rest briefly and take photos (there are almost no photos of the walk up to Cucamonga Peak because I didn't have time to take any!). I don't think this group is for me.

Anyway, it was a lovely day out, not too hot for us as we were high on the mountain before the temps got very high. The trail was infested with Boy Scouts and ladybugs. I got some pics once I separated from the group.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonov/se ... 68/detail/

I've found that a lot of these advance groups are too fast for me as well. Most of the time I just physically can not keep up. The rest of the time I just like to stop and take pictures or just look around. I've gone back to mainly solo hiking now.

Btw, I believe that is Kathy Wing's group. It's amazing how many strong hikers are out there.

simonov wrote:moving very fast with almost no stops

I know they don't stop. I was heading up, just below Cucamunga and they were coming down. (about 10:20) 4 or 5 of them stomped by us as we were heading up. 1 or 2 in the rear did the polite thing and yielded to the up hill hikers. I imagine that was you in the rear Mitch.

Anyway, we had a nice chat with a guy from San Clemente while taking a break on Cucamunga. He came from Etiwanda peak. We decided to head over and check it out and I am glad we did. Nice views of the Baldy area peaks.

Nice picture of those lady bugs, they were everywhere!! I missed that tree covered with them though.

hvydrt wrote: Anyway, we had a nice chat with a guy from San Clemente while taking a break on Cucamunga. He came from Etiwanda peak.

I suspect that might have been Jay. I chatted with him at Icehouse Saddle. He lurks here and recognized me when I stopped at Columbine Spring to fill my water bottles.

Hi, Jay!

Nice report, and great pics. I've only seen the ladybug phenomenon once - in the West Fork, near Red Box, a few years ago. I'm not a fan of bugs - but it is weird how ladybugs are somehow OK!

Nice pics - looks like it was a beautiful day out there.

Not all of the http://www.meetup.com/Southern-Californ ... akbaggers/ are fast paced. I hike with them and I'm not fast. Most of the time the organizer of the hike will indicate if the pace is going to be fast.

How did the group get from Cucamonga to Ontario? Did they return to the saddle or go cross country to the top of Bighorn? Their pace is smoking. 1:20 from parking lot to saddle is an hour faster than my best. Of course, they look to be half my age, too. We hiked Ontario Saturday. There were a lot of people on the trail. Many camped at Kellys and bagged the peak after setting up tents. We filled water bottles at Kellys. The springs are still flowing well.

RichardK wrote:How did the group get from Cucamonga to Ontario? Did they return to the saddle or go cross country to the top of Bighorn? Their pace is smoking. 1:20 from parking lot to saddle is an hour faster than my best. Of course, they look to be half my age, too.

They stayed on the trails, so they just went back to the saddle and took the Ontario Peak trail. It was a Y shaped hike.

During the discussion on the website, Zé suggested they climb straight up Bighorn from Cucamonga Saddle, but while that would have reduced mileage, it would have slowed them down for sure. Speed was of the essence, since the hike leader had to get back to civilization by 4:00pm, not that they were really ever in any danger of missing that deadline at the rate they were moving.

Not all of them were very young. In fact, I don't think any of them were under 30 years old, and at 47 I don't believe I was the oldest.

Not all of them were very young.

When you are 60, everybody looks half your age.

too funny. i've never hiked with that leader (jackie), but if she appears to be bad, I'm sure I'm worse

I noticed the description didn't really say how fast they would be going, that would have been helpful.

I basically state that we'll be going at 1600 ft / hr or something like that, and ask people to say if they can climb some elevation in some amount of time, depending on the hike. For me, climbing 1600 ft / hr isn't bad. All depends on conditioning of course. Given a relatively steep slope, it would be probably annoying to walk slower.

On less steep trails, I probably just walk at 3 mph, but I don't like feel like I'm walking fast. I think you can enjoy scenery while moving. Don't have to be stopped. To each their own, just hopefully the hike pace is made clear!

Zé wrote:I noticed the description didn't really say how fast they would be going, that would have been helpful.

In the comments someone mentioned 2.5 to 3 MPH.

Up mountains? I walk that fast on the street. I thought they were exaggerating.

Apparently not.

Simonov & Hvydrt -
It was nice talking with you guys on Saturday. My son & I had an excellent day going out to Cucamonga & Etiwanda. We finished up by jogging down from the Icehouse Saddle via the Chapman trail. My legs are still tired! We are hopefully ready for Whitney next Tuesday!! Hope to see you out there again...