Joplin Trail to Santiago Peak is a lot harder than I expected, probably a combination of distance and altitude gain.  I did Cucamonga last week and this was harder, for me.  I didn't want to walk a road, from Maple Springs, or screw up my truck, so chose this route.

It was a good day for a hike, and the trail is easy to follow, but it is often rocky, and steep but nearly half of it offers shade.  I took four liters of water and used it all.  There were two locations that had some stream water to filter if needed, the first just past Old Camp and the second a couple miles farther along.

First 1.5 miles are steep and difficult, and unshaded, until you reach the old Santiago Truck Trail (not suited for trucks) and then it gets more reasonable and slopes down to Old Camp, I always hate losing altitude after having gained it.  Just past that is an easy stream crossing with running water and the next couple of miles will be shaded a lot of the time but it will be steep and rocky.  For me it was a welcome sight to see the Main Divide Road, since I knew it couldn’t be as steep and I was down to the last quarter of the uphill.

Bugs started to come out after Old Camp, somewhat distracting but not enough to use a head net, then I got to a about a quarter mile section where there were millions of Lady Bugs, no distracting bugs there.

On the trail from the start to the Main Divide I only saw two hikers and 3 bikers, coming back down I saw 2 hikers and 2 bikers so quiet.  One biker did sneak up behind me on a narrow, steep downhill, so you must keep an eye out.

I added a graph for comparison between this hike and Cucamonga and Ontario which I completed recently.  Both hikes have altitude, but Joplin has longer mileage, some steeper sections and more gain overall.