Icehouse Canyon, or How Socks Saved My Hands
I think I woke up at 4:45. I’m not sure though because I kept waking up worried that I had slept through my alarm and my dad had left without me (which he wouldn’t even do). Whatever happened, the sun was not up.
I like waking up before the sun. There’s something magical about feeling like the only people in the world (until you get on the freeway, then nevermind). Once we got into Mount Baldy Village though, it was completely quiet except for Yo-Yo Ma playing the theme from The Mission, which is the best pre-hiking music ever.
My dad and I had just gotten Patagonia down jackets and were eager to try them out. Well, I was. He’d already tried his in Barrow, Alaska. It was good we had them, since it was maybe 45-50 degrees the whole time.
So anyways, we had to fill out a wilderness permit at the ranger station because we would be hiking in the Cucamonga Wilderness. If you get there before sunrise you just leave it in the box outside the gate and you don’t have to worry about getting a signature, and I guess that’s ok because we didn’t get a ticket.
After a couple of false starts, we were finally off. Icehouse Canyon is so beautiful, especially right now, after all the leaves have fallen. Also it had rained recently so the creek was very healthy looking.
Okay, that picture is kind of a trickle, but I promise it was full!
There were also some cabins scattered along the trail, including some ruins.
The trail quickly starts heading up. It’s not super steep but I needed to stop a couple times to catch my breath. We watched the clouds the whole times, because we weren’t sure if it was going to rain, and they looked a bit like storm clouds. There was this amazing wind that kept sweeping through the trees in the canyon. It actually sounded like waves at the beach.
There was also this beautiful view.
That’s Mount Baldy! We were on top of that and you can’t even see the top!!
I bet the people hiking up were freaking out a little.
See the ridge that curves around that bowl. We were hiking straight up that.
OKAY, back to the canyon.
We stopped to eat at Icehouse Saddle. We finally had a cookset for our stove, and a wind barrier (which is tiny and looks like a coaster), and I had gotten dehydrated Kathmandu Curry from REI, so it was time to try this. We had amazing success. For those who don’t know, you pour the boiling water into the pouch the food comes in and ziploc it closed for about 15 minutes, depending on your elevation. Then you pour it into your dishes and it actually looks like food that’s edible!
So now you can see the socks on my hands. We didn’t have gloves. It was about 45 degree on the saddle, because that incredible wind that was coming down through the canyon had to start somewhere and that apparently was on the other side of the saddle. I have poor circulation in my hands and feet (I actually don’t know that for sure but people like when you sound like you know what you’re talking about)(plus it’s probably true), and I already had socks on my feet so obviously I needed socks on my hands. But really we just didn’t have gloves. I’m not sure why that didn’t occur to us before we left the house.
We had to keep moving when we finished lunch so that my fingers didn’t fall off. We decided to take the Chapman Trail back to the trailhead rather than going back through the canyon. If it’s beauty you’re searching for, stay in the canyon. If you like adventure, the Chapman trail is for you. It’s pretty of course but in a different way. We hiked a lot through a rock slide area.
I definitely plan to go back to Icehouse Canyon. It was so beautiful and peaceful. And, at the saddle there are a bunch of trails that go to summits, like Cucamonga Peak, and the Three T’s, Timber, Thunder and Telegraph Mountains. I’d like to get to all of those.
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
germansingergirl
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