Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Hike #21 Grapevine Mountain

52 Hike Challenge 2016 Adventure Series

6.25 miles | +2100'







Grapevine Mountain is a prominent mountain located in northeastern San Diego County about 12 miles east of Julian in the Anza Borrego Desert.

The hike from the trailhead takes you along a cactus-strewn section of the PCT. Making the summit will require a little route-finding skill and a lot of off trail travel, including some light class 3 and 4 rock scrambling and bushwhacking through fields of cactus and thorny things. Notable sights from the summit include views of Mt. San Jacinto, the Superstition Mountains, Granite Peak, and Cuyamaca Peak.

We took an alternate route to the one described in Jerry Schad’s Afoot & Afield in San Diego County. Parking for the trailhead on our hike can be found on the northwest corner of HWY 78 and San Felipe Road.

The 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which was intended to hit as many high points as possible along its mountainous route between the Mexican and Canadian borders, takes an anomalous detour into the Anza-Borrego Desert within San Diego County. At the time this segment of the PCT was built (1980s), a shorter, high-elevation route following the forested Volcan Mountain crest to the west was unavailable due to a large parcel of private property in the way. As a result, the PCT was circuitously routed down from the Laguna Mountain crest to Scissors Crossing, then up and over the dry San Felipe Hills toward Warner Springs. The excessively winding, 24-mile stretch between Scissors Crossing and Highway S-22, featuring no water, furnace-like heat at times, and only marginal camping spots, challenges the patience of anyone who tries to follow it all the way — including the Mexico-to-Canada “through-hikers,” who typically travel this section in April.


For those with an interest in botany, however, the San Felipe stretch of the PCT — at least the initial couple of miles upward from Scissors Crossing — is rewarding, especially after winter rains bring sufficient moisture to the desert.

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