Santiago Peak Wilderness Travel Course Kaweah Group Conditioning Hike

It's that time of year again where we start taking the new crop of Wilderness Travel Course students on outings!  After three weeks of classroom sessions we spent Saturday hiking Santiago Peak via the Holy Jim Trail.   It's an Orange County classic it involving 15 ish miles and 4k gain all on trail making it a great fitness assessment before we continue on to the rock scrambling, snowshoe, and finally a winter backpack in the Sierra!


The morning started early as everyone met at the dirt lot at the mouth of Trabuco Canyon at 5:30 am.  Coffee was drank, packs were checked for 10 essentials, paperwork was signed, and we were off!


Our little caravan made impressive time down the occasionally bumpy dirt road and by 6 am we were parked and starting up the road to the trailhead proper.



The start of the trail passes by some cabins and even has a few small stream crossings.  These can sometimes be challenging after rain but with how dry it was this year they were trivial.


We stopped at the Holy Jim Falls trail junction for some nav practice before starting to climb in earnest.




By 9 we'd reached out customary break spot where the trail rejoins the road at Bear Spring.


From there it's a short distance on the road and then back on a steeper trail section.



Rejoining the road near the top there's a perfect spot for identifying local landmark peaks like Baldy, San Gorgonio, and San Jacinto in addition to some terrain recognition exercises.


And then it's up the final section of road to the summit.


By noon everyone had achieved the summit and posed for the first of many summit shots.  While the summit does lack a wilderness flair due to all of the towers it does offer impressive views of both OC and Riverside.



And the good news was it was all down from here!


On the way down we ran into Olancha Group which was doing the same hike as us just starting a bit later.  Here you see new staffers Jo and Roxi along with an extremely cool Barry.




Back at Bear Springs it was time for everyone least favorite / most stressful activity of the day: The Name Game!  We go around the circle with each person saying their name followed by naming each person that came before them.


Obviously it was an exhausting experience.


We made another stop on the way down for more nav practice.





I'd heard that some people keep free roaming peacocks back here but I don't recall ever seeing them before.  This guy was hanging out on the porch of the one of the cabins.



Even taking our time at breaks we were back at the cars by a respectable 5:15 pm.



After last years poor showing where no students came to the post hike dinner 2018 made a respectable showing.



Beer was drank, pizza was consumed, and everyone headed for home feeling accomplished.

Next up for class outings we have Joshua Tree February 17th & 18th where we'll do some additional nav and have our first rock scramble and costumed summit shot!