Icehouse Canyon to Ontario Peak

We headed back up Icehouse Canyon today to venture onto Ontario Peak. On the way up we saw over a dozen people coming down after spending the night to see the Perseid Meteor Shower. Unfortunately it peaks tomorrow night so the campers only saw a couple of meteors. We also met a boy scout troop on the way up to Icehouse Saddle.

TRAIL SHOUT OUT! We want to congratulate Troop #652 for not only getting to Icehouse saddle, but making their way on to Cucamonga Peak! We hope you all had a great day in the mountains.

We then made our way onto Ontario Peak. I was not feeling great so I hung out Kelly Camp and made friend with a tree to nap under while Jason and Paul headed up to the peak.  They found a nifty treasure and are starting  a new outdoor photo trend in honor of John Muir, "Muiring". We would love to you a pic of you in nature "Muiring" so post them to our FB page if you are so inclined!

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Both guys said the peak was great!

A Hike Up to Ice House Saddle and Beyond.

This past weekend marked our last chance for a long training hike before our Whitney climb beginning the 18th. We wanted some distance some elevation and some different scenery, we get stuck on our favorite hikes and have vowed this year to branch out on our weekly hikes. I had never done Ice House Canyon before, Saveria had done it in winter as a snowshoe but it was the first time for both of us in dry conditions. We roped in our trusty mountain partner Adam and dragged him out at 6 am to get to the trail head for a 7 am leave, with a snooze or two we were on the trail by 7:30. The day was amazing and it was our second big test with the fantastic new Delorme inReachSE. We had packed our full kit for Whitney and headed to the saddle, 3.5 miles with about 2000 feet gain getting to about 7600ft. We got there in pretty good time so we headed out a little further towards Cucamonga Peak. We climbed up to about 8300 ft. and then had some sandwiches, courtesy of Adam, his pack was smaller so we guilted him to carry our lunch. We turned around due to a time constraint because I had a bourbon tasting that evening, so we turned around and back at the saddle.

TRAIL SHOUT OUT: Back at the saddle we met a nice couple from Hollywood and Mt. Washington. Saveria handed out some stickers and so we give our trail shout out to these two who had hiked up from Chapman.

We are now supposed to be ready for Whitney. We are currently in Lone Pine getting ready for our climb tomorrow. We will be posting updates from the trail on our Facebook page.