Just to nail two more peaks on the Sierra Club list, I hiked Lookout and Asbestos mountain in the San Jacinto Range.Before the hike I was flagged down at the trail head by 3 hikers with a dead battery. They had been waiting for someone to show up for almost 2 hours. I jump-started them and took off for my hike. Lookout Mountain was relatively easy as most of the approach was on the PCT. There was an angry rattle snake that didn’t like me there. The summit had a pretty good use trail, but very steep. Overall, 4.3 miles and 1,134 elevation.
The drive to Asbestos was a little farther than I thought but at the end of dirt road was a gully leading straight up the mountain. There were many cairns, too many, and I decided to follow some fresh sheep tracks instead. They took me to a false peak, but the top of Asbestos Mountain turned out to be what appeared to be a ancient crater. It was a cool sight. The peak had an old fallen dead tree and it made me wonder how it ever grew there in the first place. After following errant cairns on the return trip, I made a short hike back to the car into a longer one. On the way down a hawk was screeching that he was not happy with me in his territory. Overall 1.7 miles, 1,073 elevation.
I haven’t hiked the desert in such a while, I forgot it was hot and full of cacti.
Wow, that’s an awesome shot of the hawk!