Eleven anxious hikers met at the intersection of Hwy. 243 and 4S01 at 8 am Sunday morning. (We had 8 cancellations the night before.) It was already beginning to get warm, but remained quite pleasant the whole day.
We consolidated vehicles and caravanned to the Castle Rocks parking area. Although the guide stated "go right on 4S01 at 1.5 miles," we went left as the road sign indicated. The road has been recently graded and was in fine shape. By 9:30, we were hiking up the PCT and were all on top in 90 minutes. We passed a few small patches of snow off the trail, but it was virtually all gone. The views were good, we were not in any hurry, so we sat and gazed for a while. By the time we returned to the cars and drove over to Boulder Basin campground to start our hike to Black Mtn #1, it was time for lunch.
We had arranged a voluntary potluck and people really went all out. We had finger sandwiches, macaroni and tuna salad, baked chicken, taco salad, fresh fruits, vegetables and dip, juice and cookies. After all that, we didn't really feel too energetic so Black was a nice leg-stretcher. We found no register on top.
We were back to the cars before 3. Kathy Lucas and Basil Anton were determined to get her 25th peak so they, along with Stephen Bache, drove to get Indian and Ranger on their way home. Congratulations Kathy, we are sure you made it! Thanks to all of the participants who shared this nice spring hike with us: In addition to the above mentioned, Susan Chamberlain, Carol Burns, Jone Levis, Karen Houseman, and Dean and Pat Acheson.
