SDC: #23
Elevation: 5,779 ft.
Date Hiked: 4-17-2010
Trip Report:
The thimble is a mountain located in the San Ysidro Mountains in San Diego County. I had wanted to hike this mountain and was planning on hiking it last January but snow made that impossible. I was back today to try it again and there was no snow this time.
The Thimble
Peter and I left Escondido around 9 and arrived at the trailhead at 10:30. We started hiking and made good progress pass Chief Rock and White BM. The terrain became more difficult after this because we could not trespass on to private property. This meant we had to take a more eastern route across White BM and onto the Thimble.
Chimney Rock
White BM
White BM from the Thimble
The climb up the thimble was fun with some good class three moves. We went up the south side which is the easiest of any direction. The north side has a large cliff which blocks all access. The view from the top of the Thimble was great. We could see many mountains which I had hiked earlier at some point.
Peter on a Class 3 Move
Me Near the Top of the Thimble
San Ysidro Mountain
The Thimble North Face
We took a break on top of the Thimble and decided what to do next. We decided we still had time and found a way down back to the east side and we going to try and Hike San Ysidro Mountain. We made it a little ways along the ridge but ultimately decided the brush was to thick and it could take a long time trying to find a way through. We headed back near the way we came up. There was an interesting halo around the sun as we were going back.
Sun Halo
We made good time back except for near White BM where we had to run from a swarm of bees. We climbed over to the east side of the mountain and continued down. On the way back I took time to photograph the flowers which were in full bloom.
Flower 1
Flower 2
Flower 3
Flower Field
We made it back to the car and the GPS said we hiked 7.2 miles. Another great day in San Diego.
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Pretty cool that you were there a day before me.
We braved the thick brush from The Thimble to Ysidro, however, which took some serious time and scratches. I also noticed that you cut into the private property are between The Thimble and White. We avoided that, which really did look tempting, but there was a firing range near that area that we didn’t want to approach and I didn’t want to encourage people to trespass.
I do believe that the picture you indicate of Chief Rock is actually Chimney Rock. Chief Rock is just to the southeast of White BM.
Yeah glad you finally made the trip. We tried to stay on BLM land and thought we did most of the time. If we did trespass it was unintentional. Thanks for the correction on Chimney Rock!