Hiking Gold Mountain (8235 ft)

[phydeux]

Hiked up Gold Mountain, the high point east of Big Bear Lake and north of Baldwin Lake, on Saturday (7/11). Nice simple dayhike, but a few notes if anyone wants to do this in the future:

Don't use the route in John Robinson's book - its nonexistant. Instead, use the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT crosses the east end of the Holcomb Valley Road about a mile north of Hwy 18 and 300 yards south of the Big Bear dumpsite. Go up the PCT to the fire road that crosses north/south over Gold Mountain to its high point, then east about 200 yds to the rocky summit. The PCT and the fire road are both on the USGS topo map of the area.

The north/south fire road can also be used to get to the summit, but it sees a lot of mountain bikers.

You can also go all the way down the fire road to the Holcomb Valley Road and walk back to your car; you'll pass the ruins of the old Doble mine.

I put the route on summitpost's Gold Mountain page:

http://www.summitpost.org/route/528926/pct-route.html

One more thing: No summit register. If anyone's planning to do this in the near future, post up if you take a container. I might be back up in the fall and I'll take one if no one else posts up that they've already done it. Cheers.

[KathyW]

I think summit registers have become passe - most of the peaks with fairly easy access either don't have them or they are recent replacements that have no historic value. We didn't see registers on Islip, Middle Hawkins, Hawkins, Throop, or Burham in the San Gabriels on Saturday. Baden-Powell had one, but I didn't sign it so I don't know how old it was - probably not very old though.

[phydeux]

True, summit registers can be a little passe on those 'trophy peaks' that are over-run with visitors (San G, Mt. Whitney),especially those with paper overflowing out of a register box. Those types seem to collect too much drivel on philisophical and religous themes, the ubiquitous ramblings on 'family/friends/teamwork/against the odds' entries, etc. But they are interesting to look at on lesser-visited summits. I came across one a few years ago up in the Sierra Nevada that had register entries back into the 1950s, and sat for 2 hours just reading the entries about weather, routes ascended, and even names of folks I've heard of before but never met (sorry, but I'm not naming names!). Pretty cool when you see that stuff, then start noticing the entry dates and realize the summit is visited infrequently; I've found one that gets an average of one summit party every other year. Even more amazing when its a peak thats right next to a popular peak that sees lots of people every day in the summertime.

Might do another trip up Gold Mtn with some relatives that'll be visiting this fall. I'll take a new register up there for anyone who enjoys thumbing through them.

[Cy Kaicener]

Talking of summit registers, they are retired to the Bancroft Library in Berkley when they get old, to preserve valuable mountain records
http://summitregister.langenbacher.org/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adven ... q_n_a.html