Cucamunga Peak

It has been a while since I went anywhere new. John Johnson and The Adventureseekers were planning several hikes on their road to Mt. Whitney. One of them was Cucamunga Peak. I had never been up there so thought it would be fun to go. I tried to round a up a second group to leave an hour before The Adventureseekers in hopes we would peak about the same time. At first I started with myself, Kris, Amy, Roger, and Laura. One by one they dropped off until it was just Kris and I. The Adventureseekers were leaving the trailhead at 7:00 AM so we planned to leave at 6:00 AM. Kris picked me up at my house a bit after 5 AM. We were to the trailhead by about 6:15. I had called a few days earlier and had a permit left on the board for us at the visitor's center.

Everything was going fine until we were about 25 yards down the trail. We thought we had come across a murder scene. There was blood everywhere. Even worse there were some bloody clothes. We didn't see a body or anyone around. We headed back to the parking lot to find a cell phone to call someone. We ran into a Sierra Club member who agreed this didn't look good. Kris and I decided to look around a bit closer. After the initial shock wore off, we realized the blood was to bright and shiney to be real. Someone was playing a joke of some sort. About 6:30 we finally headed up the trail.

Judging from this picture at the car, it looks like we had HMS before we even left the parking lot. About 1 mile from the saddle, the second group caught us. We caught them again at the saddle. We hung out a few minutes after they left the saddle and followed behind them. An older gentleman tipped us off about the mine just off the trail. From the trail it doesn't look like much. It doesn't even look like much when you first enter it, but if you take the tunnel to the right, and then the one to the left, you end up in a full on mine. It's pretty cool. Kris and I didn't actually explore it until the way down and this is what we saw.

We want to go back and check it out some more but are unsure how safe it is. We may need to do some research on the area first.

Continuinng up the trail, we were just a few minutes behind the other group. To prove to Laura that I wasn't lying during our San Gorgonio trip, I actually found a pinecone that still had nuts in it and Kris took some pictures. SEE, pinenuts really do come from pine trees.

We actually caught up the the second group again at the second saddle. We kept up with them for a while and lost site of them about 1/2 mile from the fork to the top of Cucamunga. We were only a few minutes behind them. The goal was achieved, we were all on the summit at the same time. We got a nice picture of the group minus one who headed down early. I think his name was Terry. In the picture are 4 Quest employees and 4 non-Quest employees. John, in Red, was the only Quest employee not wearing a Quest shirt. I guess we will have to keep working on him.

This is the view of the Inland Empire from the peak. I think the view is better then Baldy as this has a sharper drop and no other ridge lines in the way.

Here I am on top.

Speaking of Baldy, Here is a cool picture of the bowl as seen from Cucamunga Peak. You can even see the ski hut.

If you have some good bandwidth, click here to see a 360 degree video from the summit. Also check out this one which lets you do the driving (requires QT 5)

Since Kris and I were a few minutes behind the other group, we hung out at the summit after they left. It was a nice day. After some food, we booked booked it down, only stopping to check out the mine. We passed 2 from the faster group that were suffering some knee problems. They made it back about 1/2 hour after us. That's pretty odd as I am usually the slowest one on the mountain.

On the way down my usual problem set in. My pulse got weak and my breathes were shallow, then I started feeling sick. Back at the trailhead I sat for a few minutes, then I puked. I don't know why I didn't look it up sooner, but I had heat exhaustion. I used to get this when I was a cyclist in High School and College but then I would only feel dizzy. Now I have the other symptoms and no dizzieness. This sucks if you have never had it, you just want to puke for hours on end. I guess my office job which keeps me in the air conditioning and the long hike work against me every time. Oh well, I drink a ton on the hikes and if that isn't going to stop the heat exhaustion, I don't know what will. I need more time outside during the day.