Reyes Peak, Haddock Mountain

16 May 1992

By: Luella Fickle

Leaders: Luella Fickle and Rob Langsdorf

Gordon called me on Monday; he had hurt his back and his doctor didn't recommend him hiking 18 miles. I called Barbara Reber who was signed up for the trip and she agreed to assist. After hearing all sorts of road closure information, I decided to go in form the Ojai side and hike the Chorro Grande Trail. The group met at Rose Valley Road and Hwy. 33 at 7 am. No Barbara, but we had a guest from the San Diego Chapter who is Advanced (E) rated for them, so on an "0" rated climb, Rob became our guest assistant. We waited for Barbara for 20 minutes. When I got home, Sunday morning at 2 am., she had left a message on our answering machine, car trouble. Rosina Mueller and her friend Peter had attempted to climb Reyes and Haddock the weekend before and the gate at Pine Mountain Summit was locked. As the time was getting short, I decided not to set up a shuttle, but to climb it up and down the Chorro Grande trail. (22 miles rt) We got on the trail at 8:05 am. We returned to the cars around 8 pm. The Chorro Grande Trail is in good to fair condition and is easy to follow. All but one odd turn is marked by trail signs or metal blazes on trees. The one odd unmarked turn is at the Chorro Grande camp, 4 miles from the bottom. At the sign, turn right as you face uphill and the trail tread reappears. The trail goes through interesting sedimentary rock formations, up Chorro Grande creek, past two backpack camps to the Pine Mountain Road 11-1/2 miles west of road's end.

When we got to the Pine Mountain Road, we discovered that it had been opened during the past week. We had a little snow on the north side of Reyes. We hiked out to Haddock where Rosina climbed her 200th peak. Rob pointed out on the topo that the trail on the north side of Reyes is much lower than where it is located on the map. I looked for and found the old trail. Once on the old trail, the climb to Reyes from the Haddock side is much easier than straight up from road's end. The old trail passes very close to the summit of Reyes.

My thanks to Rob Langsdorf for his assist and to the group: Peter, Rosina, and my husband Erich. The turtles did 22 miles.