I've always wanted to go up Falling Rock canyon and excitedly accepted an invitation to join Bill, Reza, Dan, Lindella and Cindy last Saturday.
My first omen was hitting ice on the road into the Icehouse Canyon TH and feeling my car losing purchase. Made it OK and joined my fellow hikers in determining what gear we would carry. Watched other cars sliding on the icy patch and heard swearing in multiple languages.
Icehouse had a dusting of snow over ice so we walked carefully up the trail to cross the creek and attain Falling Rock Canyon (FRC). I went first and promptly fell hard on a rock when my foot slipped
. The quadriceps muscle above my knee (vastus medialis oblique) hurt like hell, but I figured I could walk it off. We stowed our poles and donned helmets for the rock scramble up FRC. I discovered that I had problems pushing myself up with my left knee due the quadriceps injury. Well, great 
Going up FRC took some route finding. First we had to avoid a frozen waterfall at the bottom. Then, it was a matter of finding good purchase going up the canyon through the ice and snow without dropping rocks on each other. Everyone was very patient with me as I limped uphill in the back. In addition to hurting a lot, my quad wasn't firing correctly -- the muscle felt stunned.
We reached a place where FRC cliffs out and headed up a ridge on the right hand side of the canyon. Everyone got out their ice axes. I put on crampons as I found I was slipping backwards in the snow even when stepping in my comparions' footprints. My quad started hurting less and began firing normaly as we switchbacked up the ridge. When we reached a saddle on the ridge, I noticed that my pants by my left knee were stiff with blood. Apparently I had a big hematoma which was pressing on the muscle. Once it ruptured, I felt much better.
From the saddle we went to the left up the ridge. Dan and I were the only folks in crampons, everyone else wore micros. Although the crampons made negotiating rocks and other obstacles more difficult, I liked the traction they provided. We took a short fuel break about halfway up, then continued to climb, dodging obstacles (trees, large rocks and brush) as much as possible. Finally topped out and could see our objective, Ontario peak.
Looking behind us to the Baldy Bowl was breathtakingly beautiful. The clouds high above Baldy kept changing and provided wonderful shadows. We crossed the relatively flat area, which was a land mine of snow covered brush. Finally reached the final climb up to Ontario peak, our lunch spot. The views from the peak were absolutely stellar -- the sun glistened on the Pacific ocean and clouds kept moving over Baldy. Not a bad view anywhere.
Unfortunately, we had to descend, which involved a pain in the butt traverse along the ridge. Initially we thought we would climb up Big Horn peak and descend a snowy chute back to Icehouse canyon. However, the traverse was eating up time and we wanted to be back on the Icehouse canyon trail before dark. Dropped down to Kelly's camp, then attempted to follow the trail which traverses along the ridge to Icehouse saddle. There was no beaten down path, just a snowy slope. Thank heavens for the ice axe and crampons.
Finally reached the chute that Bill had choosen to take us down to Icehouse canyon and everyone donned crampons. If this chute had a bit more snow, it would have been a fun glissade. However, on the way down, we occasionally had to lower ourselves down over snow covered rocks. Reached Icehouse canyon and scrambled up to the trail. Substituted the crampons with microspikes for the last 2.5 miles.
We donned headlamps a bit before we reached the Cucamonga wilderness sign. The last mile seemed to take forever. It didn't help that sections of the trail were covered with solid ice. We were all hungry and tired and it was COLD. Finally reached our cars, where I discovered that I had no car keys. I yelled frantically for folks to wait. Dan drove his vehicle over and illuninated the rear of my car while we searched for my keys.
When we completed our futile search, we found that everyone else had left. I started to have a meltdown -- poor Dan. We threw my gear into his car and headed down to the Baldy lodge to call AAA -- neither of us had cell service at the TH or in Baldy Village. The folks at the lodge were great and loaned us their phone so we could call our families and AAA. Triple A was able to find my member number and dispatch a driver. I thanked Dan profusely for being such a good Samaritan and hunkered down to wait.
Triple A showed up quickly -- I had barely started eating my chili. Sam was awesome and knew the area well. He quickly unlocked my car so I could retrieve my spare key. Then, he followed me back down to the Lodge where I finished my chili, picked up my gear, and thanked the Lodge folks again (including owner Ron) for their help.
Got home about 9 PM and died. I forgot to let the Craigmeister know I wouldn't be hiking Skyline with him on Sunday and slept through his call. He had a great hike on Skyline in the cold and fortunately forgave me.
Moral of the story: I will not leave my hiking buddies until I know that 1) everyone can get into their cars and 2) the car starts.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
I'm looking forward to going up to Ontario via Falling Rock again.
Maybe I'll start tying a lanyard to mine.
