Cucamonga Peak was my final hike for the challenge this year, as there wasn't enough time to do all twelve.  I still plan to fit a few more in before the end of the year, outside of the challenge.  This is my third time doing Cucamonga peak, and the last time was around the same time two years ago.  We made it to the trail head very early since we knew the parking lot gets full fast.  We arrived at 6:10 am, to an already full parking lot, but we were able to park along side the road just next to the parking lot.  We knew we had a long day ahead, and we had a lot of time.  This was one of the earliest hikes we've done.  We started into the mountain at around 6:30 am and kept a mellow pace.  The weather was cool, but not cold.  I did not need a jacket, at all on this hike, and I completely forgot about sun screen for most of the hike.  We made it to the Ice House Saddle at about 8:45, and not needed much of a break headed up to the peak almost as soon as we caught our breaths.  The rest of the trail to the peak was a little warmer, and towards the last two miles started to get a little steeper going up the switchbacks.  I had forgotten how long this part of the trail was, and it seemed like I was doing switchbacks forever.  We finally reached the peak at around 10:00 am, and had a quick lunch, and a good break.  We got our pictures and still full of energy, headed back down.  The way down is always much faster, even though towards the end it did seem like the trail kept getting longer and longer.  Half way down the sun started to warm up, and I did need to apply sun screen.  We made it to the trailhead at around 1:30 pm, and headed out for some pizza and beer to recover.