OK, I am renaming this mountain to “El
Cabron”. This is the most difficult hike
I’ve ever done (outside of the army).
Today’s objective was to tackle W6/SC-115 - El Cajon Mountain, a peak near
San Diego. Mike, Traci, Jeanette and I
leave for the Grand Canyon next week so we wanted one more training run. I was not prepared for how grueling this hike
would be. The length, 12 miles, was
known, but how many steep climbs there were in both directions was a surprise.
All of us launched early to avoid the certain heat. I switched my gear to the pack I was taking
to the Grand Canyon and it was about 40 lbs.
The pack is too small for my torso but will work for the trip. (Alltrails route info)
I’m no stranger to very very steep ascents,
like the ones on Poser Mountain, Sheephead Mountain (I did Sheephead again yesterday), and Hill 1715 near Pala. What made this so difficult were the multiple
steep climbs in and out of canyons in both directions. The peak was only 3,765 but I felt we did
this multiple times. I don’t mind the
climbing, but when there is an immediate descent that erases all the work, it
is a bit demoralizing. (Remember this
when I start talking about the return trip).
With a 40 lb pack on, I used my poles like a four-wheel-drive jeep and I
was actually surprised how well I did.
Some of my success must have been the espresso and motrin cocktail I had
before departure. My feet were a little
sore from Sheephead yesterday so the motrin would help. (click & zoom in on the picture on the right. The dog is at the top)
Two other factors made this more difficult,
walking on granite most of the time, and the afternoon heat. I would say that 75% of the trek is literally
walking on solid rock. Seriously, we
were walking on giant boulders or groups of them, as well as rock fields.
We weren’t crawling over boulders, just using them as road. Even when I was on dirt, my sharp tipped
poles only went into the earth about 1/8 inch.
We got an early start and got on the trail at about 6:55 as the sun was
coming up so it was cool. It took a
little over 3.5 hours to summit, and although tired, I felt good. The descent, which I would start at 11:22, was warming to a very toasty 85 deg F.
I was the first of the group to arrive at the
summit and started setting up so the
rest of the crew wouldn’t have to wait for me.
Because there there was zero wind, I was able to setup the MPAS antenna
just off to the side of the peak with no guy ropes and was on the air in about
10 minutes. I found some nice shade and
setup my operating position. I felt
great.
I found a frequency that was open, 14.337
(Cessna 337 was one of my favorites). I
was getting ready to post an alert on the SOTA site when Adam of KJ6HOT called
me. He saw me pop up on the spectrum
analyzer on his new Icom 7300 and zeroed in on me while I was
calling “Is this frequency in use”. I
have an IC-7300 radio also and I love it.
Adam and I have spoken on the radio and email several times and he has
been a big help in offering advice and trail routing for my Laguna hike. In fact, right after I setup on the top of
Sheephead Mountain the first time, we talked on VHF (using my hand held). After we concluded our chat, he placed a
alert on SOTA Watch so other “chasers”
could find me and the party started at 18:29 UTC (10:29 AM local).
I had a nice pileup and spent about 40 minutes
collecting 26 contacts and talking to people that were in very cold conditions
and snow storms from eastern US and Canada.
Ofcourse I let them know I was on a mountaintop in 80 deg weather with a
million mile visibility.
Just as I was breaking down, Jeanette let me
know the rest of the crew was headed down the mountain. I packed up quickly and then stopped to talk
to a guy that was shooting video with a quad-copter, a DJI Spark. He pulled it out of a little case, unfolded
it, and it took to the air. The thing was
amazing. It maintained position even in
a slight breeze. I hope to find the
video on Facebook but have yet to see it.
When I do find it, I’ll update this post.
I ate a bar with chocolate and some nuts and
noticed my water bag was leaking a tad... Hmmm I wonder how much water I
lost. It was leaking because the pack
was on the mouthpiece and I didn’t close the valve. I started my descent at 11:22. The first portion was very steep, with a ragged
trail over rocks. I managed to keep from
taking a header off the rocks using my poles and then headed down the second
descent. By now it was pretty hot.
After the initial descent, there were two very
steep climbs over and through canyons.
I caught up with Mike and Traci.
I got a little cooked (overheated) and I’m not sure I had enough to eat
at the summit so I might have been bonking as well. This hike just turned into a tough return to
the car and I still had 5 more miles to go!
Shortly after this, I ran out of water (not
sure how much I lost up top). I
remembered my army desert training and soaked my handkerchief that Jeanette
gave me with with the rest of the dog’s water from the bowl. It was like turning on the AC. After a couple more hills, we finally got a
small breeze. Jeanette was way ahead of
us. She was smart, and used her time at
the top to kick her boots off, eat, drink and re-energize.
On one gravel covered solid rock descent I
went down a couple of times, sliding on the gravel that was on a solid rock
bed. No injury, but it was tough getting up.
Mike and I lagged Traci. After
one decent, I didn’t see mike so I stopped in some shade and waited for him. I got a report that he was fine but was
waiting for one of his dogs to recover.
Chula, the mutt from Grand Canyon, had been running all over the place
and had overdone it. He came down about
10 minutes later with a dog that really didn’t want to go. I reasoned that we really didn’t HAVE to be
in a hurry. If things got bad, all we
needed to do was wait till 3 or so when it cooled.
Mike and I passed a young Indian man a few
times who was cooked and going slow. He
had water and I advised him to take his jacket off. He did and seemed a bit better. I was worried about him, but he passed me
while I was waiting for Mike and the dog and I never saw him again. Traci gave him some an electrolyte supplement
and that also seemed to help. I think
that now we were in a bit of a breeze, we all felt a better.
Mike was the next to run out of water. He and Traci brought water for the dogs but
he was also giving some of his to Chula.
At the very end, he was starting to cramp up. We met the girls at the staging area and I
headed directly for the car. I drove up
about 300 yds and met them as they were coming down. We had a very large jug of water in the car
that was split between us and were were gulping it down.
I drank water like crazy and I felt like the picture of the tree to the right. When we got home, I got on the scale and
found I lost quite a bit of weight from the trip (water I’m sure). The hot shower felt good. We went over to some friends and watched the
Super Bowl (one of the best I’ve ever seen).
I drank water and juice continuously the entire time. I had some
electrolyte supplement and I went out and bought some bananas. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep due
to cramps. I gained 9 lbs after all the
water and slept well (except having to then get rid of the water that night).
OK.
That’s it. This mountain was a
Cabron.
Contacts:
Loadout today:
●
3 L of water (8 lb)
●
NO SOTA Dog
(She stayed home today, 12mi might is too far and I don’t want to carry
her water)
●
iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota
goat
●
Hiking poles
REFERENCE
More Pics
73s,
-- Chris Claborne, N!CLC
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