The last time we had scheduled these peaks it was hot. This time things looked much better. We also had a much better turn-out. Fourteen eager hikers met in La Cañada. We drove up to the starting point 1.3 miles east of Islip Saddle. The hike went very well without any problems until we arrived at the summit of Hawkins. One of our participants was lagging behind. He insisted on signing out and doing Copter Ridge on his own. I could not talk him out of this plan. After a short discussion with Jennifer we decided we could allow him to sign out if he wasn't prepared to turn back. We felt we could still be responsible for his safety since we had led him this far.
We went on down to Copter ridge. When I first did this a couple of years ago it was an unmarked ridge. Now a well-defined use trail leads out to the summit. In another couple of years this will probably be distinct enough to be considered an O rated route. Our last participant was about 10 minutes behind us at Copter ridge with Jennifer's company. I offered to sweep back up to Hawkins but Jennifer insisted that she would do it. I thought I had patience!
We went back up to Hawkins and waited about 30 minutes for Jennifer and the last participant. I then led the bulk of the group back to the trailhead and bid them farewell. Our slow hiker arrived about 40 minutes later.
