Granite Peaks

3 December 1994

By: Joe Young

Leaders: Frank Dobos, Ruth Lee Dobos, Joe Young

Four hikers met at the Pomona carpool point and joined two more at about 7:45 am who drove to the McDonalds on Main Street in Hesperia. The six of us drove in two vehicles up the highway to Big Bear via Lucerne Valley.

The driving route to the current roadhead for Granite can be simplified. About 0.2 mile past Arrastre Creek turn left and proceed for 0.3+ mi to the end of the road at a fence with an opening in it. Park here. From this point one can see three main washes in the ridge north of the fence. The more traditional route is up one of the washes northeast of the roadhead; the less traditional, and the route of choice today, is northwest-north. For either route one should take a bearing at the outset of the hike, because there is little in the way of nearby landmarks to key on for visual connection. For our route the appropriate bearing is 355° going toward the peak from the roadhead, and 175° on return.

Frank led all day. Dr. Ruth and Joe swept all day, very slowly. Temperatures were quite cool most of the day. The hike took from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.

The advantage of the newer route to the west is that there is no drop off before reaching the summit plateau, as is the case with the more traditional route.

The hike was uneventful. We decided against attempting Silver because (1) Dr. Ruth and Joe didn't feel like it; (2) either driving or hiking, much of the trip would have been conducted in darkness; and (3) it looked like rain. Instead four of us went to the Sizzler on Main Street in Hesperia for a wonderful repast afterwards.