Location: San Bernardino County, about 10 miles northwest of Fawnskin, 110 miles from Los Angeles

Maps

Nearby Peaks: Shay Mountain, Little Shay Mountain, Ingham Peak

Distance: 6 miles round trip on road, trail, and cross-country

Gain: 2100' total, 1525' out plus 575' on return

Time: 5-7 hours round trip

Rating: Class 1, moderate

Navigation: Moderate

Original: Larry Pond, November 2021

DRIVING ROUTE 3

• Head east on CA-210 E to San Bernardino
• Take exit 76 for CA-18/Waterman Ave
• At the bottom of the ramp turn left onto CA-18/N Waterman Ave
• Drive 18.2 miles on CA-18 then
• Use the left turn pocket to turn left onto CA-173
• Drive 4.3 miles on CA-173 then
• Turn right onto Torrey Rd
• Take note of odometer:
• At 0.15 mile go straight as Torrey Rd becomes Rouse Ranch Rd
• At 0.45 mile go straight and off pavement
• At 0.52 mile turn right onto Forest Rte 2N25
• At 1.9 miles 3 way junction, make a slight left to take middle road
• At 3 miles junction with Forest Rte 3N34D, take the hard left turn
• At 4.3 miles junction with Forest Rte 3N38, go right to stay on 3N34D
• At 5.1 miles park at turn out before the particularly steep road section.

HIKING ROUTE 3

• From the parking area (4620'), continue to follow 3N34D for 1.1 miles as the road goes down to Deep Creek.
• Find a way to cross Deep Creek and then look for the motorcycle trail and an old fence opening.
• Hike about 300 feet take the abandoned motorcycle trail ascending up to the north east.
• Follow the abandoned motorcycle trail for 1 mile to the 5200' contour.
• Follow the 5200' contour to the southeast as it descends into a major gully.
• Cross the gully and climb the ridge, keep the large interesting rock pile to the left.
• Near the top of the ridge drop down into the drainage on the south side of the ridge.
• In the drainage hike south to the saddle point of the saddle on east side of Deer Mountain.
• From the saddle hike up the ridge to the west southwest to summit Deer Mountain.

Special Files for Route 3

Note by Larry Pond, early 2022:
The motivation for developing Route 3 is the current Forest Service closure of some Deep Creek area. The particular closure area prevents access to Deer Mtn via Route 1. The topo PDFs below show the closure area as a green area bounding around Deep Creek. The Deer Mtn Route 1 (DM1) the red route, crosses through the closure area. A violation. The proposed Deer Mtn Route 3 avoid the violation by going around.

With the goal of ascending Deer Mtn as part of collecting Emblems, I found another way. I’m calling it Route 3. We did a private hike of this route on Saturday Nov 13. We had a successful ascent. In our group, We had 3 “I” rated leaders—Bill Simpson, Sharon Moore, myself—and 3 “O” rated leaders—Shana Rapoport, Terri Straub, Teresa Smith---and 9 Participants.

I am pleased with the route. There are steeper portions which can be handled. There are shrubs, none were impenetrable. A variety of hiking capabilities can successfully ascend Deer Mtn using Route 3.

I think that this route will be beneficial during the closure period and beyond. Having a third route fits right in with the Explorer Emblem Awards.

• Driving topo map
• Driving gpx file
• Hiking topo map
• Hiking gpx file