Hines Peak Trip Report

6,704 ft

This was a 5,000+ ft gainer on Saturday May 18, 2002 with Edward Earl. It is on the California's Fifty Finest list of most prominent mountains - which served as the motivation for doing it.

I drove my Saturn the previous evening to Anaheim where I picked up Edward who had been dropped off there by David Metzler who was in So Cal for a wedding. David had driven S from the LA area to my home so that Edward might demonstrate WinProm for David at my PC. David M subsequently drove Edward back to a reasonable point for my evening pickup.

Edward drove most of the remaining distance and we slept at the trailhead.

We were hiking on the forest service by about 6:10 AM and, after about an hour, chose the wrong "trail" as the next leg of our upward journey. Thrashing to-and-fro up steep dirt slopes wasted some 45 minutes. Back at the road a lady hiker informed us of the correct trail's jumping-off point from the road some half-mile or so further.

The final push up Hines Peak itself was steep and involved some class 2 work along with a neat ridge walk on a use trail just after leaving the trail proper. We were on top about 12 noon or 1 PM - having started at the trailhead elevation of some 1,800 ft several hours previously.

This was a strenuous day hike given 18 miles and more than 5,000 ft of total elevation gain (getting lost soon after the trailhead added perhaps 250 ft while ups-and-downs along the route adds perhaps 2 x 50 as another 100 ft). Total time car-to-car was about 11 hours.

Views to the north along the final 2 miles before the summit are wonderful indeed - with mountains higher still across a deep valley.

I drank 1 1/4 gallons of water/powdered milk on this hike - not letting our recent dry experience in the Avawatz range get the better of us.

A pint of Starbuck's cinnamon streusel coffee cake ice cream during the drive north to Sunday's venue of Cone Peak. I had earned it!!