Let's pick up where we left off shall we. The gals and I successfully made it down Cucamonga Peak to the small saddle, and upon gazing at the mountain before us we set off to find the Ridge Trail that would take us directly to Bighorn Mountain (without having to go back to the Icehouse Saddle).  That particular Ridge Trail was discernible on the way up to Cucamonga Peak so I was sure we'd be to manage. On the way there was lots of cursing, mostly directed at me, lots of breaks and lots of sweat.  At one point I thought the gals might try to push me off the mountain as payback, so I kept a safe distance. You know, just outside of arms length. The number of fallen trees proved to be a challenge, but nothing that we could not manage.  Once we made it to Bighorn .. it was magical.  We even paved the way for a second group to follow up the ridge 🙂

From there we moved onto Ontario Peak! And to my surprise there was LOTS more snow on the trail. I mean, I would never have imagined that the trail to Ontario Peak would have more snow than that to Cucamonga Peak.  I guess that is why one must ALWAYS be prepared with their essentials. I think at this point everyone was tired and the rambunctious group from the morning started to fade, our pace grew a bit slower and we took more little breaks here and there. By the time we reached the summit we nearly had it all to ourselves. I could not have planned it better if I had tried.

The trail back to Icehouse was largely uneventful with the exception of more snow past Kelly Camp and before Icehouse Saddle. By the time we were about a mile away from the trailhead we were all exhausted, and I kept hearing “Who planned this hike?” Oops! I guess that was ME. My feet had not been that sore in a long time and when we got back to the car I was barely able to push myself up to get into the high clearance vehicle.

At the end of the day we had roughly hiked 17.8 miles and gained about 5,699 feet in elevation. I jokingly told the girls they were ready for San Gorgonio via Vivian Creek .. they were NOT amused.