Winston Peak, Winston Ridge

7 December 2002

By: Ron and Leora Jones

Leaders: Ron and Leora Jones

With the threat of rain predicted, and a navigation trip drawing a lot of folks, our group was significantly diminished! We had one participant, and we were delighted to have her. Sonya Arancibia met us at the La Cañada carpool point from where we carpooled to the Cloudburst summit parking area. Sonya is working on her second go-round the HPS list. Just before the parking spot there was a down motorcycle. We offered to help and all he needed was a hand righting his big road bike, and Ron assisted. The biker had hit black ice, fortunately at slow speed, and he slid to the edge of the road, without injury, but he couldn't pick his bike up.

It was cool but sunny and wearing layers and gloves, we ascended the usual use trail to the left of the parking lot toward Winston Pk. In less than 40 minutes we summited, and found no register or signs of one. We took a brief break then headed down slope toward the saddle for Winston Ridge. There were significant snow patches on the north side which we mostly avoided. At the junction with the PCT, we followed it briefly then headed left on the use trail toward Winston Ridge. From summit to summit we took our time, talked a lot about travel and Chile, and were there in 1 hr and 40 minutes.

Great views of both Palmdale and Pasadena, ominous clouds over the Mt. Baldy area, and beautiful sunshine. Not a soul around that we saw. We had lunch, signed in the register (which was placed in July 2001 by Niles Sorenson and Judy Ware) and headed back. We took the same trail back to the PCT, stayed on it till it intersected the dirt road, where we disturbed a beautiful coyote, and then we returned on the dirt road to the parking area. It was an easy hour and 30 minutes from Winston Ridge to the car, and my new total hip replacement worked fine. I'll try to get out more often on it. It was a beautiful day, good to smell the clean air and pine trees, and glad to have met Sonya.