Grapevine (SDC #32, 3955′) • map • directions

Sentenac (SDC #33, 3068′) • map • directions

Pinyon (SDC #37, 4492′) • map • directions*

 

Finally it was getting cool enough to head out to Anza Borrego. Cool enough but not necessarily cool. I’d been up a handful of peaks in Anza Borrego State Park over the past few years, but this was my first time out since starting on the San Diego peaks list and I was looking forward to more. This particular weekend I brought the necessary maps and info for five peaks situated around Earthquake Valley. 

I like to start with the toughest peak first so Anna and I first set our sights on Grapevine Mountain. We followed the directions in Schad’s book and had no problems finding a large circular turnout a mile off of highway 78, on an unnamed dirt road navigable by most passenger cars. We started off at 9:30am and within minutes were swallowed up by the desert solitude. 

 

As described in Schad’s book, we followed a prominent wash just east of Bitter Sweet Canyon, bypassing a large dryfall on its left side. We spent twenty minutes hiking through the wash before starting up the slope just southwest of point 2620. Point 2620 is a recognizable cone-shaped mini-peak near the start of the hike and helped to confirm that we were on the right path. There was no trail or any evidence of anyone for that matter. We were constantly weaving around desert shrubbery, rock outcroppings, and of course plenty of cactus, especially the dreaded teddy bear cholla. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hiked an additional 25% on top of what the map shows.

 

At about 3000 feet we bypassed a steeper bump on the ridge by traversing to our left, getting up onto the ridge itself at about 3400 feet. The ridge from there was awesome with great views and scrambly class 2 sections. It was quite enjoyable and made the entire hike worth it.

 

 

We reached the summit at 11:30am and took a needed 15 minute rest, not having stopped since we left the truck. It was warm out but not unbearable, perfect with the occasional breeze. I recognized a few names from summitpost.com in the summit register, which had seen just a handful of ascents per year.

We stared down into Bitter Creek Canyon to west, debating on whether we should descend that way to make a loop back to the truck. The canyon looked to be more challenging than our ascent, but probably wouldn’t add too much time, “probably.” With more planned for the day, we decided to head back down what was familiar.

Anna struggled descending and traversing the steeper part of the ridge on the loose desert sand covering hardpack. I’d been accustomed to it from my previous desert hikes, often feeling more challenging going down than up. It feels easier for me to descend quickly than to constantly try to slow myself so I hiked down five or ten minutes at a time, then would stop to let Anna catch up and make sure she could see the route I was taking. Soon enough we were back at the truck where a ranger had left a note on my windshield reminding me that I needed to use a metal container for campfires in the desert. They must have seen the bundle of wood in the bed of my truck. I grabbed a cold drink for each of us from the small cooler I’d left in the shade underneath the truck before we pulled away for the next hike. 

 

Sentenac

Ten minutes after leaving the trailhead for Grapevine mountain we pulled onto a turnout on the 78 right next to Sentenac, acutally right in between Sentenac and Grapevine. I wondered whether an ascent of Grapevine would have been faster from here. The only thing I knew about Sentenac is that it would be steep and cross-country, but it was also short.

 

 

Immediately after leaving the 78 on foot wefound ourselves in the midst of a small marsh and it may have been faster and easier to start this hike further down the 78. Once through it we marched right up the south slope of the mountain, moderately steep and loose in a few spots but nothing too difficult. It took us 40 minutes to cover the 3/4s of a mile and I failed to take any photos until the summit, probably because the views and terrain were lacking a bit in comparison to Grapevine. I was surprised to find a summit register which had logged an ascent or two per year at best, cool. We retraced our steps and arrived back at the truck in no time.

 

 

Pinyon

We had the time and energy to hike one more peak before setting up camp, but first decided to let the heat subside a little. We found a shady spot on the side of the S2 and took a long lunch and put down some fluids, listening to some music and going over the maps for the rest of the weekend. We decided to hike Pinyon (P4492) next, what appeared to be another easy peak, and we’d shoot for getting to the summit before sunset and hike down in the dark. 

We started the drive up Pinyon Mountain Road, heading towards “the squeeze” and the Pinyon Dropoff, obstacles revered in the off-road community. We weren’t driving quite that far but we were hoping to drive to the base of Pinyon mountain. Hoping. At just over 3 miles from the highway we ran into an obstacle, a tall rock step that ran across the width of the road. I feared the road would get worse  so we decided to hoof it from there. We’d barely miss the sunset and would have to make the hike to the summit in the dark, but it seemed easy enough. 

We grabbed our gear and started up the road and it didn’t take long for me to realize that I should have driven it. There were a few rough spots but overall it would have been drivable all the way to the base of the mountain, and I ended up driving the road at a later date.

 

 

We started up a ridge on Pinyon Mountain’s southeast side after sunset. Right off the valley floor the slope was steep and loose,and I took a few waypoints with the gps on our way up just in case. The shape of the mountain would make it tough to get very far off route however. “Micro” routefinding was the real challenge in the dark as we could only see as far as our headlamps would allow, making it impossible to keep an efficient path through the cactus. We just kept heading up and up until the mountain flattened out, and just by luck we walked right to the summit boulder, where we found the summit register buried in a pile of rocks. From the road the entire ascent had taken 32 minutes.

The register had the familiar names of some local San Diego peak baggers and only had a few entries since its placement in January 2009. The desert night sky was amazing but Anna and I didn’t stay long, hungry for our pasta dinner we had waiting for us in the truck. We found the way down without too much trouble reaching the road at 7:30pm. It would have been nice to be at the truck then but walking the road had extended our day by less than 90 minutes. 

Once we returned to the truck, we cooked and ate dinner, and slipped into our sleeping bags in the bed of the truck just after 11. Plenty of time to get enough sleep for tomorrow’s adventure.

 

 

 

 

*-The driving directions for Pinyon get you to the turnoff for Pinyon Mountain Rd. Continue east on this road for the southern approach to Pinyon Mountain (high clearance required to make it all the way). See the satelite view in Google Maps for help in visualizing the route.