Buck Point and San Sevaine Lookout

January 12, 2008

By: Ted Lubeshkoff

Leaders: Ted Lubeshkoff and Gary Schenk

The last scheduled HPS trip to these peaks was over four years ago, on October 19, 2003. After a fire in the fall of 2003, the peaks were suspended by the HPS management committee. Recently they were unsuspended and many people were anxious to get these peaks on their way to completing their list finish. On January 12, 2008, 14 intrepid souls started at 8 a.m. from the north end of Foxborough Drive in Fontana to hike the 17 miles, and 5000' gain, round trip. We went through the gate, up the paved road, past the water tanks to the start of dirt Road 3N16. By 10 a.m., we had climbed 2.5 miles and 2100' and intersected Road 3N14, the main ridge road coming up from Sierra Ave.

We headed west on Road 3N14 for 2 miles to the junction for the San Sevaine Lookout, left extra water bottles there and headed for Buck Point. After another 2 miles, we came to the spur road on the left going to the peak. The last ¾ mile to the summit had up to a foot of snow, which made the going slow. We reached Buck Point around 12:30 p.m., 7.25 miles, 4000' gain, 4 ½ hours from the start. We left the summit at 1:15 p.m. and hiked back to the junction, and onto San Sevaine Lookout. We missed the spur road to the Lookout because it was so overgrown and had to retrace our steps to find it. The first several hundred yards were pretty brushy, but it opened up after awhile. We celebrated Ignacia Doggett's second list finish on San Sevaine Lookout. We left the summit at 3:45 p.m., the 3N14 junction at 4:45 p.m., and the 3N16/3N14 junction at 5:30 p.m., and everyone arrived back at the vehicles by 7:00 p.m., 11 hours for the day.

The gate at the beginning of Road 3N14 on Sierra Ave. is open seasonally in the fall. Hiking on Road 3N16 from Foxborough drive is 6 miles shorter, round trip, than walking from the beginning of Road 3N14 on Sierra Ave. Road 3N16 is mostly a nice, narrow trail on an old roadbed with great views of Mt. San Jacinto, Mt. San Gorgonio, Santiago Peak, and Modjeska Peak.

Participants were: Ted Lubeshkoff, Gary Schenk, Mary Jo Dungfelder, Dorothy Danziger, Suzy Herman, Nancy Lelieur, Bill Simpson, Ignacia Doggett, Peter Doggett, Larry Campbell, Sonia Arancibia, Christine Soskins, John Slagle, and Chris Wu.