SDC: #25
Elevation: 3,675 ft.
Date Hiked: 11-6-2010
Trip Report:
El Cajon mountain looms over the city of El Cajon in San Diego county. Although many people see this mountain, fewer people know what it is and even fewer hike to the summit. Today my friend Eric and I hiked to the summit via the south arete route. This route was steep, loose but fun.
El Cajon Mountain
We left San Diego at 6:30 and made our way to the trailhead. We were ready and hiking by 7:15. The first part of the hike crossed a swamp area. This was the only time the entire hike we saw water. This route is dry and in the heat would be dangerous. After we crossed the swamp we crossed the valley and headed for the ridge. This route was difficult to get lost on. We could see the entire route from the valley below.
The Start of the Ridge
The first part of the ridge is not difficult, there is a nice use trail to follow. After a little while this disappears and there are only a few cairnes along the ridge. Even so the route was straight forward. As we were climbing this ridge reminded me of the ridge on Indianhead. We stopped every so often to enjoy the views. As we climbed up the ridge the temperature was perfect.
Eric Enjoying the Views
Lunch Rock
Looks Like a Dog
The higher we hiked the better the views became. We could see the clouds starting to form over the coast in front of Cowles Mountain.
Eric Climbng the Ridge
Looking Down the Ridge
On Top of the Ridge
Eventually the terrain leveled out and we were at the top of the ridge. We still had a ways to go to reach the actual summit. We found a use trail which we began to follow. Along this trail Erik noticed large cat tracks. We were not sure what type of cat made these but it appeared to be large.
Cat Tracks
Eventually this trail merged with the main trail which we followed to the summit. The view from the summit was great. We could see all of western San Diego county to the ocean.
Palomar Mountain
Eric on the Summit
One of the Three Benchmarks
The Main Trail
We stayed on the summit for a little while. It was windy and cool on the summit. Eventually we decided to head back down. We went directly south from the summit and intersected the use trail near the top of the ridge. Although this cut some of the distance it may have added time due to all of the bushwhacking we had to do. Nonetheless we were on the trail again. Around this time we saw a helicopter land near the top of ridge. It hovered there for a little while then took off. I assumed it was SAR training.
Helicopter
We descended the ridge without incident. There were a few times we had to carefully pick our way down but for the most part it was straight forward. It was hot on the lower section of the ridge and Erik and I were both ready to be back at the car. We eventually made and it and had one last look at the south arete.
Near the Top of the Ridge
South Arete
Google Maps GPX Track View
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That was fun, a good way to spend a Saturday morning
great write up and pics!! i have attempted that same exact route but chickend out about 80% up the ridge. You guys climbed without ropes correct?
Tom, we did not use ropes
hear me on out this, say about 80% of the way up the ridge, there is a small ledge and it starts to get more steep and technical, and you have some real exposure on either side of you, does it continue like that the rest of the way up?
I am not sure exactly what ledge you are talking about but there were only a few places where we had to be careful climbing. Most of the route was class 2. There were a few spots with easy class 3. if you go to far west on the ridge the exposure is much worse.
Thanks for the post
Great work keep it coming
Thanks for the blog post. I thought it was interesting.
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I climbed the south arete today and it was warm with a nice breeze. Lots of new plant growth from the recent rains and even some early flowers. you post was informative prior to my attempt,thanks.
I read a posted by Tedwater above and I thinkI can clarify the situation for him. Likely the more intense exposure was past the last large cairn before you plateau. I tried 2 doable class routes but didn’t like the idea of downclimbing them on the return back down, the handholds and ledges were less than spectacular. So I went down to the aforementioned cairn and went west and immediately found a route in the shadow of the arete, which avoids the exposure completely. Try this next time.
I have to say I am impressed with your blog and I will save its RSS to be alerted whenever you make a new post. Keep up the good work.
I’m a bit of a novice, so the down climb was not intuitive in the least. Got lost on the west side of the ridge down climbing. BEWARE OF THIS. Just had a horrible afternoon of guessing games, back tracking, and exposed traversing. When at first I couldn’t get across the San Diego river without getting my feet wet, I knew I was in for a day . .
Otherwise, saw a massive golden eagle and the climb up the ridge, though the approach was tricky to find, was quite exhilarating!
I did this hike less than one moth ago and used your blog to prepare for it. I found it very helpful. I noted there is a use trail all the way up to the ridge now This, I think , helps to avoid the exposure significantly. There were only a couple of tricky spots but nothing too demanding. I went down the conventional way , using the dirt road. I’m definitely downclimbing it next time, before the summer hits. I found multiple ticks on me after the hike and had to negotiate tons of poison oak at the stream crossing .