Potato or why we want to live in SoCal
Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2019 6:47 am
November 22, 2019
I haven't been out much lately due to a knee injury but with the great weather I figured I would make an excursion. Since I live in Claremont I was just going to walk the Wilderness Park but on the drive up there I could see the snow-capped mountains and decided to hit Potato Mountain for the better views. There really isn't much to this little bump on the front range, with a fire road leading to a water tank at the summit. I took the less-traveled East ridge up, which is a pretty good workout since it's just a mile to go up the entire ~1100 feet. I used to call this the secret route but in the last few years it has become much more popular, there were a couple groups of people well ahead of me when I arrived. After spending a few minutes on top with my Snickers bar snack I walked down the fire road. All of the Spanish Broom has been cleared out of the road, making it plenty wide to pass people walking three across with their dogs. Short day but great views and as the subject says, it's why we want to live here.
Potato from my parking spot across Baldy Road.
First little plateau on the secret route.
This little guy was less than two inches nose to tail. I spotted him only because he was tumbling down a drainage.
Second rest point, it's about to get a little steeper.
It's a great feeling when your head pops up to spot the actual trail.
Summit area.
Posing. I wore a jacket on the early shaded part.
The LNT principles are not followed here. This is the largest batch of taters I have ever seen up here.
Great view.
AllTrails route info.
I haven't been out much lately due to a knee injury but with the great weather I figured I would make an excursion. Since I live in Claremont I was just going to walk the Wilderness Park but on the drive up there I could see the snow-capped mountains and decided to hit Potato Mountain for the better views. There really isn't much to this little bump on the front range, with a fire road leading to a water tank at the summit. I took the less-traveled East ridge up, which is a pretty good workout since it's just a mile to go up the entire ~1100 feet. I used to call this the secret route but in the last few years it has become much more popular, there were a couple groups of people well ahead of me when I arrived. After spending a few minutes on top with my Snickers bar snack I walked down the fire road. All of the Spanish Broom has been cleared out of the road, making it plenty wide to pass people walking three across with their dogs. Short day but great views and as the subject says, it's why we want to live here.
AllTrails route info.