Cucamonga Mini-Reunion of the SoCal Kilimanjaro Crew

Some friends who were in that group that did the Kilimanjaro trek back in January planned a hike to Cucamonga Peak. I wasn’t sure I would be able to join them but I decided to make the effort. I arrived at the parking lot at around 6:30 AM but due to it being already filled, I parked uphill and walked back down to the trailhead. As I wasn’t sure if I would catch up with them, I filled out my own self-issue permit at the trailhead and started hiking. The wooden bridge near the trailhead was found to be damaged and unusable so the trail was somewhat different. At one point I made an error and crossed the creek so I decided to backtrack and rejoin the main trail. I kept a steady pace past the metal posts with the numbers 1 and 2. After the metal post with the number 2 as it starts to go uphill, I caught up with the group which composed of Bobby, Ella, and Gaby. It was good to see them. We hugged each other and from that point it was now a group hike instead of a solo hike. We kept a steady pace. We took a break at Icehouse Saddle. Then we continued on. Between Icehouse Saddle and Cucamonga Saddle one of the trees had fallen on the trail and had not been cleared out yet so we had to go under the tree. We kept a steady pace. Close to the summit, we came across Edgar Alvarez and his group coming down and we greeted each other. I introduced Edgar to the others and we chatted for a while before he went on. We stopped at Instagram Rock took our photos and had lunch there since there was shade available unlike the true summit. After the break, we went up to the true summit, took more photos, and then started to head down. The hike back was uneventful. We got back to the trailhead around 3:40 PM. After getting to our cars, we went to Mt. Baldy Restaurant to have a meal and recall our memories of the Kilimanjaro trip back in January.