Granite Mountain #2, Whale Peak, San Ysidro Mountain, Hot Springs Mountain

16 November 1991

By: Charlie Knapke

Leaders: Charlie Knapke, Frank Goodykoontz

Nine of us met at the entrance to the dirt road which leads to the primary route for Granite Mountain in San Diego County. We drove from here to the traditional parking place for this peak. This road has become very bad in the last year! It may become necessary to find another set of instructions for the peak guide if this road deteriorates any further. We climbed the road and then the ridge up to the summit in good time. After we finished signing the register, we retraced our steps to the cars.

We then caravanned to the normal starting point for Whale. We picked up one more hiker on the way. We climbed this peak by what Frank called an unusual route (seemed normal to me). We returned to the cars just after dark.

We then went into Borrego Springs where we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the west end of town. After dinner, dragging our tails, we headed up to Culp Valley campground where we stayed the night.

On Sunday morning we regrouped at the State Park boundary for the hike to San Ysidro. Here we picked up another hiker. We had lost a couple from the day before so we still had eight hikers at this point. We headed cross-country staying on public property all of the way to the peak. It seemed to take forever but we eventually made it to the peak. It was cold and windy up there so we signed and got off the summit ASAP. We then made the trek back to the cars without incident.

At this point we lost a couple of more hikers who elected to head home early. The rest of us headed up Hot Springs Mountain. The register has been moved off of the big rock since it kept getting wet when the rectangular hole in the rock filled with water. The new location is at a short pole about thirty feet west of the rock.

I would like to thank Frank for his able assistance throughout the weekend. I would also like to thank Carleton Shay for a short piece of assistance at the end of the Whale hike.