Sister Sally helped me celebrate my 61st birthday on Labor Day by joining me in the Cucamonga wilderness. We went up Falling Rock Canyon to Ontario, then over to Big Horn, down and up to Cucamonga and finally over to Etiwanda. This is only the second time both of us have bagged the four peaks in the Cucamonga wilderness and the first time using Falling Rock to get to Ontario peak. Even with a 5:30 AM start, it warmed up very quickly -- the morning sun beat down on us on the ridge between Ontario and Big Horn. We took our first rest stop in the shade near Big Horn peak. At the Cucamonga/Big Horn saddle, we met two very nice women headed to Cucamonga -- they were surprised to see us going down from Big Horn. I had actually managed to avoid losing significant amounts of blood on the XC sections and was lulled into a false sense of security. It was quite warm on the climb up to Cucamonga -- we were sweating buckets and had to remove our hats to keep from over heating. Suddenly my head hit something and I felt a searing pain in my scalp. Once the stars cleared, I realized that I'd hadn't ducked low enough to go under a fallen tree. I get angry at myself when I draw blood and just want to keep going but wanted to give Sally a "heads down" warning.
Once we started climbing again, Sally noted that I was marking the trail with my blood. I hadn't noticed because of how much we were sweating. Mopped up as much as I could with my bandana. We caught up with a large group summiting Cucamonga and I donned a hat so I didn't have to answer any embarrassing questions. We had arrived at Etiwanda at 12 noon -- we had the peak to ourselves and enjoyed our second fuel break of the day. We weren't looking forward to the warm trip back but there were cold beverages waiting....Followed the trail back to the traverse around Cucamonga and started the descent. At the same saddle, we ran into the nice women again. They had hoped to do EBCO but were unsure of how to get to Etiwanda from Cucamonga. When asked our age, Sally spilled the beans and they sang Happy Birthday
Both of us had forgotten about the length of the climb to get back to Icehouse Saddle. I was getting a headache -- probably had something to do with banging my noggin and the heat. On the way down Icehouse, we stopped at Columbine, drank, and enjoyed a well-deserved bandana dip. The descent seemed to go much faster after that break. Reached the cars at 4 PM and enjoyed chilled beverages and chips before driving to PF Changs in Rancho Cucamonga for a fabulous dinner. Thanks to Sally for a wonderful day.
Miles of smiles,
Bloody Blonde Hiking
