Friday I planned to hike up Cucamonga Peak, a fun climb in the San Gabriel Mountains. I was on the trail at 6:30 am, enjoying the relative solitude of Icehouse Canyon. At the saddle between Cucamonga and Bighorn Peaks, I noticed a use-trail heading up the south side of Bighorn and thought that might be something interesting to try. Since I was on top of Cucamonga before 9:45 in the morning, and was feeling pretty good, I decided to go for Bighorn.
I was a bit winded after the steep pull up to Bighorn’s summit and thought the two summits were enough for the day. I followed the path off the west side of Bighorn and soon met up with the main trail which would take me east, back to Icehouse Saddle. The thing was, Ontario Peak was just a short distance (1.3 miles) to the west.
You guessed it; I headed over to Ontario Peak, where, for the second time today, I had the summit to myself. All three peaks in just a little over 6 hours. The downside was I didn’t intend to be out this long (the plan was only to hike Cucamonga) and only brought a few snacks with me (though, thankfully, enough water.) I was feeling my age as well as being a bit hungry on the way down, not to mention it had been quite a while (years) since I last did a 5000+ foot day.
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