Dayhiking the SDC Peak List
Last Updated: 11/29/12
|
The Sierra Club's San Diego Chapter list of 100 peaks has been an enjoyable one for me. I probably would never have climbed more than a few of them (the ones in common with the HPS and DPS lists) had the area not been the home of my inlaws, whose generous hospitality has allowed the family to make regular holiday visits over the years. In particular I enjoy the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park as my favorite California area outside the Sierra Nevada. The rich variety of terrain and compactness of the ranges makes for great hiking and scrambling. Finding Wes Shelberg's and other early explorers' names in the many old registers makes for a fine bonus as well. Because of its out-of-the-way location, most these summits were done solo, though my children joined me on a handful and I managed to talk a variety of my climbing pals to join me on others, including Matthew, Evan, Tom, Adam, Laura, Karl and more. Thanks to everyone who came out to play with me over the past decade!
The earliest summits I did in San Diego came from Jerry Schad's fine book, Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. A few, like Lawson, I climbed a second time and have a TR including them. Two summits, Otay Mountain and El Cajon Mountain were done sometime in the 1990s and I have no pictures, dates, and few memories from them. I recall doing Otay by myself following Schad's directions and having to hike up the long road on foot because it was gated closed at the time (maybe it still is?). It was weird hiking past bored Border Patrol officers sitting in their trucks at various points along the route from which one can see the Mexican border fence. I climbed El Cajon from the west (also according to Schad's directions) with an old friend Terry Davis. He and I had done some of my earliest outing in the Sierra in the early part of that decade. He had since moved to Arizona for job reasons and we'd made the drive from Phoenix to San Diego together over the holiday (he had no family at time, so he joined ours). While in San Diego we climbed a few peaks, El Cajon being one of them. I don't recall it being a very difficult outing, but I really should go back a second time to take pictures and make more of a memory out of it...