EISPIRATEN

I've been hiking the north San Diego county area lately (many forgettable peaks), but this one might be of interest to some people.

Wild Horse Peak is on the Lower Peaks list, in the Agua Tibia Wilderness about 10 miles east of Temecula off highway 79. The trailhead starts at the back of Dripping Springs Campground. Researching this hike, I discovered how infrequently it is visited. There were only three entries on Peakbagger.com over the last 11 years, zero on Summitpost.org. I counted the entries in the summit register back to 1999 and the average was about 3 parties a year. A lonely peak.

The other twist with this peak is that there is no use trail to the summit, just about a half mile of serious bushwhacking. If you like it rough (you know who you are), you might like this hike. Fun!


Wild horse (art) on highway 79


Wild Horse Trail junction


Nice trail


Fall colors


Misuse of belay gloves for bushwhacking!


The path up the ridge


Approaching Wild Horse Peak, still have some bushes to whack


Vail Lake from the summit, hazy from low clouds


Horses jumping highway 79 on the way back


Don't know if I can get Wild Horse out of my clothes

Full report:
http://ironhiker.blogspot.com/2013/11/w ... -peak.html

Thanks for sending me the GPS track of your route.

Haha! You nailed it.

Seriously, I went into that gully like an idiot and paid the price. The ridge is where I should have stayed.

Nice teke. Looks like you could have used Taco's machete.

Cougarmagic had a trailcam up there...

Video here

Nifty....thanks for posting. Happened to see a Long Canyon via the Cutca trail to the east...looks like a nice begineer canyoneering route.