Peaks

2

Santiago Peak - Orange County High Point

(Pictures by Erik)























Quick Facts:

Elevation of trailhead:	1300ft (approx)
Elevation of peak:	5687ft
Length of hike:	15mi (the route we took)

	2006-07-01
	Time:		Events:
	3:30a		Alarm rang. I think I must have hit snooze a time or two. Normally this time is only seen on the other end..... staying up this late, not getting up this early. Argh.
	4:30a		Simon (cyby) showed up, and we packed up the car to head south.
	5:30a		Arrived in Silverado Canyon (15 minutes drive from trailhead) to pick up Jesse. He was still in bed!! Knucklehead! :) It didnt take him too long to get himself ready, and we hit the road.
	6:27a		Reached Holy Jim Trailhead parking lot, and trekked the .3 miles to the actual trailhead. Hike began at about 6:40a
	6:40a - 7:15a		The first part of the hike takes place along a creek, which means gnats, mosquitos and spiders. We didnt prepare for this (and I've been here before... duh..), so we had tons of the gnats and mosquitos constantly swarmed around us. Apparantly we were the first to hit the trail, so we had the honors in spiderweb breaking! Yay. Literally hundreds of webs stretched across the trail, but fortunatly Jesse brought a hiking stick which we used like a machete to forge our path.
	7:15a - 10:30a		This part of the trail, we left the dense tree and shurb growth as we left the creek. The terrain here was much more like the traditional so-cal high desert scrub. The weather was still quite nice, and I'm glad we got an early start (even if we were an hour later then I had hoped). We were mostly out of the sun until about 10ish, and didnt start really getting hot until at least 11:30ish Despite the terrain, there was quite a nice covering of colorful flowers, and it seems that the monarchs were migrating, as the mountain was covered with them. The "Upper Holy Jim Trail" supposedly continues above Bear Springs. We could not locate this portion of the trail (despite seeing some switchbacks here and tehre above. We continued to the peak by turning LEFT on the fire road to the top. (Right continues along the ridges and eventually hits the Ortega Highway). Our detour added approximately .5 miles to our hike.
	10:30a		Reached the summit! The summit seemed so close for so long... it can be quite deceiving. Perhaps the tall cell/tv/radio towers scew the perspective. The last .75 miles or so I went on a charge for the top, full steam brisk march leaving Jesse and Simon behind. I kept thinking it would be just around the next bend, but it was just bend after bend. The top was quite a relief! We signed the register, took summit photos, and then found a nice tree under which to eat our lunch. A guy ran (yes RAN) by, and we waved "hello". He came back down from the peak and asked if he could sit in the shade with us. He had run up the Indian Truck Road from Silverado Canyon, which was 11 miles one way. He did so carrying less water then we did on our shorter hike, and he left in the peak of the heat. Apparantly he runs "Super Marathons" on trails in places like this mountain, and this was a quick easy run for him. In August he had a 100mile race. 100 miles of non-stop running... up very steep terrain! Intense. I'll stick with hiking for now :)
	11:15		Left to head back down! Our legs were all feeling the burn from the intense grade coming up, so we took a fairly slow-and-steady pace back down. The lower we got.. the hotter it got, up to 99F at the bottom. There was no escape from the heat until we reached the car.
	2:30		Reached the car! The bugs on the way down were much more tolerable, as most of them were hiding from the heat like we should have been doing. Overall, great hike, quite strenuous despite the lack of high elevation. Don't let the 5500ft peak deceive you! I took 2.75L of water on my back. I drank very slow and carefully (less then I should have in the heat) and ran out about a mile before reaching the car. It ended up being fine, but I really should have had about .5 to .75L more. We drove back to Silverado Canyon and sat in JM's house drinking water and chatting. I ate a bit of table salt, as I felt my salt levels were low. :)