Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

Anyone interested in watching the fireworks from the top of Ontario Peak tomorrow night can contact me at pmoran1@earthlink.net I have permit for 8 for the Cucamonga Wilderness.

Send me an email and I will call you to make arrangements. I plan to head up Ice House Canyon around 4-4:30 PM.

Everyone else enjoy the 4th.

Lilbitmo

Left the trailhead at 5 PM and made the Ontario Peak Summit just before 8 PM. One guy and girl were on their way to Cucamonga Peak just ahead of me. Only other people on the trail were 6 people coming down from various places. Did not see anyone at Kelly's camp or anywhere else on the Ontario Peak Trail until I reached the summit - another couple had the same idea I had and were already pearched in the rocks waiting for the Fireworks to begin.

The hazy sky was above 9 thousand feet so there was no obstruction to seeing the lights all the way to Orange County where it was lower covering everything except the summit of Saddleback. Stayed until just before 10 PM taking pictures and just enjoying the views.

The moon had already set so I could make out 4-6 head lights going up the Ice House Canyon trail clear across the canyon from my location. Between Ontario Peak and the turn to go down at Ice House Saddle it was completely black other than my own headlamp. This is where it got spooky - somewhere another 100 yards or so down the trail right before the first trail marker I could see two people taking flash photos and I tried to catch up to them. But when I got to where I thought they had been I came across a beady set of eyes watching me in the dark (spaced about 3 inches apart and low to the ground) just outside the full view of my night light. I assumed it was a cougar from the way it was moving so I made a buch of noise, threw some rocks at it and all it did was circle left up hill and stop and watch me some more. I whistled at it and threw bigger rocks until it disappeared.

Thinking that the folks ahead of me may have some pictures of what it was I put it in high gear down the trail as I could see them 500 to 750 yards ahead (I made it down in less than 2 hours - 6.1 miles) so I know I was doing as fast a pace as can be expected in the dark but every time I got within a hundred or less yards the two lights ahead of me would go faster. This went on for an hour until we reached a quarter mile below the Cucamonga Wilderness sign requiring the permits. After going even faster I went around a few blind curves and I'm absolutely sure they turned off their night lights and hid somewhere just off the trail and did not say anything as I went by - talk about spooky. I sat in the parking lot for 10 minutes hoping they would come down the trail, but no such luck.

As I was driving away I thought to myself it's the fourht of July not Halloween what's UP? If you were the two hikers that came down the trail from Ice House Saddle between 11 PM and Midnight last night and you read this blog, please indicate if you saw the same thing I saw? If so, send me a picture.

Thanks
Lilbitmo

lol

Why are you chasing after other hikers?!

That's really funny!

Mountain lions do like to hang out where the deer are.

Tim may have been taking pictures of a Deer but I'm not sure that's what I saw. I threw enough rocks at the animal to scare it away and deer tend to lift there heads up high in the air, this animal did not. It kept low to the ground which gave me the creeps and that's when I started throwing bigger rocks to scare it away.

It only got funnier when I tried to catch up to Tim to find out what he was taking pictures of, only to have him disappear below the "Cucamonga Wilderness Sign" when I got realy close to him. That made for a complete episode of the "Twilight Zone".

I'm putting better and stronger batteries in my night light so that I can see further in the dark.