Cucamonga Peak off trail via Deer Canyon and south ridge - trip report and photos

[headsizeburrito]

After doing Sugarloaf and Ontario from Falling Rock Canyon over the weekend I got curious about other non-standard routes up Ontario and Cucamonga, so I started looking at the map for ideas. Some potential routes for Ontario caught my eye, but since I was just there I focused on Cucamonga. Taking Deer Canyon and then getting onto one of the ridges to the summit seemed like the obvious way to do it. Doing a little research led me to tekewin's and Sean's trip reports for Calamity Canyon Peak, which confirmed that getting at least that far was doable. The plan was then to take Deer Canyon north until it reached the old West Cucamonga Truck Trail and once I could see things in person to decide if I wanted to take the road around Calamity Canyon Peak like they did or take a more direct line up the side of the canyon to the ridge leading to the summit.

There is no actual trailhead here, only street parking on Haven Ave. I learned from the previous reports that they have restricted street parking to between 5am and 5pm, so the goal was to try and get there at close to 5am as possible to maximize my time. Of course you can only get up so early and get out the door so fast, so I didn't arrive until 5:30. Haven Ave is the boundary of a gated McMansion community, and within a couple minutes of parking a private security vehicle drove up and parked nearby. This didn't make me feel particularly welcome and convinced me that if I got back to my car a minute after 5pm it would probably be towed. I went up to the guy to confirm I was ok parked where I was and he was friendly, but clearly I shouldn't be late on the return.

The route starts up a steadily climbing paved road through a couple gates, passing some tanks and other water infrastructure. Eventually the paving ends and it becomes a dirt road in pretty good shape. A little further up the grading ends and the road continues along the west side of the canyon, gradually deteriorating the further north you go. You can walk up the creek bed fairly easily too, which is the usual mix of sand, rock, and small boulders, but it's easier to stick to the old road until it runs out in a mess of vegetation and debris near the old truck trail. The creek itself was dry, with a little seep here and there. At the end of Deer Canyon where it hits the truck trail around 5000' I stopped to look around and make a plan. The truck trail would be passable with a few wash outs from the previous reports, and the path to the summit of Calamity Canyon Peak was recently cleared, but from what I could see of the ridge from there it would require significant bushwhacking from there. A little further north I spotted a minor chute leading to a saddle past peak 6786. I decided a steep scramble would be more fun and more efficient than a long slow bushwhack starting further down the ridge. I started climbing and hoped for the best, luckily while the chute is quite steep, it is rocky and firm, with very little sliding around. The lower half is quite closed in with vegetation, but starts to open up the higher you go until you have some nice bare rock faces in a few places. This section requires frequent use of hands and gains about 1600' in well under a mile.

Once on the ridge around 6700' there is some fairly dense bushwhacking, and most of it has thorns. Navigation from here is just a matter of aiming for the summit and following the ridge up. At a couple points I tried to stay just below the ridge line on the eastern side to avoid vegetation, but this required crossing a couple steep and sketchy chutes. I realized this wasn't safe and somewhat reluctantly went back to the bushes. Once you reach about 7400' the vegetation thins out considerably and it becomes pretty typical for the area, with a mix of trees, shrubs, fairly loose and rocky soil, crumbly rock, and scattered boulders. The ridge is fairly wide, so there is no real exposure unless you choose to get close to the eastern edges. The final climb is fairly easy, with great views of Ontario and Bighorn to the west and the route up from the south.

There were five or six other people on the summit when I reached it at 10:30, the first I had seen since leaving my car in the morning. There had been some minor graffiti in Deer Canyon, but surprisingly almost no litter that I noticed. Once I started climbing the chute I didn't see any signs of visitation (dropped trash, cut vegetation, human looking tracks, cairns, etc) until just below the summit of Cucamonga. I had been pushing hard due to concerns about getting back in time for parking and then the slow bushwhacking section, but reached the summit with plenty of time to take a nice break and enjoy the nice day (and my pepperoni pizza). I returned by the same route, which was uneventful. While there I looked at the ridge on the other side of Deer Canyon as another possible way up, but it doesn't look like it would be anything different except for probably more bushwhacking. I made good time on the return and got back to my car at 3pm to find another private security vehicle parked there, ever vigilant.

All in all a hard but fun day. The steep climb up the chute was the hardest sustained cardio I've done in a while! The bushwhacking wasn't as long or as bad as it could have been, though I did pull a few thorns out of my legs when I got home despite wearing long pants. It was fun to finish a route that very few people have done, and the weather was almost perfect, even if there was a slight haze down below. With a little more digging when I got home I did find this report of a few people doing basically the same route back in 2003 and 2004, but I suspect the number of people who have been there since is very small, partially due to vegetation regrowth since the 2003 Grand Prix fire.

Stats: 10.9mi, 9h16m, 6550ft gain/loss.

Trash packed out: Shockingly little! One mylar balloon and one latex balloon.

[headsizeburrito]

Starting up Deer Canyon as the sun rises

Steep climb up a chute on the west wall of Deer Canyon

Looking down from the chute towards Deer Canyon

Nearly on the ridge with some bushwhacking between me and Cucamonga Peak

Final section of the ridge to the summit

Nice view of Ontario and Bighorn to the west on the way up

Summit shot looking down towards Deer Canyon and the south ridge

Final look at Cucamonga off in the distance from where I started at Haven Ave

Trip stats

[Sean]

It's always a good day when you find a solid chute like that. Thanks for the report and pics!

[tekewin]

Impressive time for getting up to Cucamonga this way. Really surprised the bushwhacking was not worse. I guess the solid buckthorn thins out a little at the higher elevations. I hate buckthorn.

[headsizeburrito]

Impressive time for getting up to Cucamonga this way.

Not wanting your car to get towed is great motivation, I recommend it!