Mount Hillyer, Pacifico Mountain, Round Top, Granite Mountain #1, Mount Mooney, Vetter Mountain (LO), Mount Sally, Mount Deception, Mount Disappointment, San Gabriel Peak

4 May 1991

By: Joe Young

Leaders: Bobcat Thompson, Joe Young

After a 6:30 am breakfast at Lloyd's of La Cañada, fifteen hikers arranged themselves into five trucks and one sedan, and regrouped at Three Points along the Angeles Crest Highway. We drove to the wooden posts marking the firebreak to Hillyer, and bagged that peak. The five trucks then headed for Pacifico, and found the roads passable. After bagging Pacifico we drove over to Round Top, then back to Granite. After a short stay on Granite we drove back to Three Points and bid adieu to two hikers. We then drove over to the firebreak leading to Mooney and bagged that peak. We lunched at the trail head for Mooney. Lunch included a celebration for Roy Stewart's 100th ascent of a peak (Pacifico) via a second route. Roy now qualifies for the Pathfinder Emblem. Congratulations, Roy!

After lunch we drove to the trail head for Vetter, now down to four trucks, and ascended via the dirt road. Descent was by the ridge. After Vetter we drove to the west trail head for Sally then proceeded to bag that peak. Since this took about one hour, it is not the way we will bag Sally during the Olympics.

We then drove to the locked gate at the Mt Wilson road and the road to Disappointment, and Roy Stewart's key obtained from the Forest Service successfully opened this gate! We drove to the base of Deception and made quick work of that peak. We then continued to Disappointment on the summit of which the leader drove his vehicle a bit too far and managed to get a steel bar trapped between his steering rod and a shock absorber. Luckily Roy Stewart and Georgina Burns found a four by four wooden post in an unexpectedly unlocked shed on the summit of Disappointment, and after jacking the track up, the post was placed under the tire enabling the truck to be backed up and thus freed of the steel rod. This consumed about a half hour.

We then drove to the Disappointment/San Gabriel saddle and then hiked briskly (12 minutes) to the summit of San Gabriel, our tenth and last peak of the day. For two participants, Venky Nagar (from India) and Wayne Salvatti this was their first HPS outing and their first ten HPS peaks.

With the saving of time because of driving past the locked gate to Deception, Disappointment and San Gabriel, with cooler weather than we had in 1989, with some additional scouting, and with a continuation of good luck we may be able to add three peaks to our total bagged in 1989. We shall see on June 22-23.