Sunrise at Cucamonga Peak

Original Thoughts of the event - Posted on my Facebook in 2018

March 24,25 of 2018

Still alive as you can see! Thanks to my friends Lupe, Jessica and Diego...we all fought the cold and stayed on track up the cold mountain from daylight to moonlight. We all contributed to our survival and enjoyed a beautifully smooth hike and camping adventure. At no point in this journey did we fear for our lives. The reason we took this challenge was all for a sunrise...not just any sunrise...but a mountain peak sunrise!!!!!

We all were in a group chat. I was contemplating on even going because I was frustrated with the latest 100 hour week and dealing with moving (my 2nd refrigerator just being delivered the day I'm suppose to leave) and it was not a good delivery. I wasn't packed and had some errands to run still before I left.

I just said f*** it. I need this adventure in my life right now and decided to go. I need to get away and this was a dream of mine already. Perfect, I'll see another dream in person and get away from a crappy lifestyle for the rest of Saturday and Sunday. So as soon as the refrigerator was delivered. I had began packing my camping adventure. I needed warm clothes, water, snacks and safety/medical stuff. I got all of that prepared in a rush. I went to fill up the car with gas, picked up sandwiches from Mr Lees Sandwiches. I got a bunch and had them wrapped in halves. Filled up a whole food sack with just sandwiches, some even had to go in my clothing bag.

I don't have a camping bag so I used two day packs. I ghetto rigged a gallon of water, sleeping bag and my food bag on to the out backpack. Since I wore two backpacks on my back haha. Terribly uncomfortable, but I did it. I like to bring extra stuff in case others need help. No big deal for me.

I get to the trailhead around 430pm, it took me 30 minutes to play with straps to ghetto rig my two backpacks and those three items to go on my back. So I started around 5pm.

I filled out the permit, left my adventure pass visible from the windshield and off I went! I was already tired a mile in...since I stopped working out over 6 months ago, just doing these hikes is better then nothing. Two jobs really taking a beating on my fit level. But that's not stopping me. My will is strong as the hulk. I kept on pushing forward. Up the mountain I will go to meet my friends. (I need to get them their emergency blankets) I also need to take cover in their tents they provided. Wind chill is a killer.

I'm enjoying the hike and I get to the saddle when it starts to get really dark. Beyond the saddle is mainly cliff-side hiking. My favorite. There was a big fog coming over the mountain when I arrived at the saddle. So you couldn't really see the landscape. If only I could have recorded the moonlit night...once it got fully dark, all was to be seen in the entire landscape covered in moonlight. Traveling on a icy, Rocky, dirt filled trail in that moon light has got to be my favorite experience yet. When your eyes adapt to the night, moonlight is a perfect setting of Shadow and light. Making the terrain highly visible still. If you turned your lights on, you will only be able to see 5 feet in front of you. But turn those lights off and adapt to the moonlight....you can see everything! It was a whole new world. An entire landscape of shadows and still perfectly outlines. I could still see the shapes of rocks and footprints in the moonlight of course. I only turned the light on for the camera use. Other then that I enjoyed the beauty of a moonlit trail.

I slipped once, before putting my spikes on. I didn't fall off the trail, but downward...where a rock was perfectly alligned with my knee. As I fell I knee'd this rock and had to shake it off. (Almost a week later, my knee is still tender)...you know I'm not giving up though!! I walk it off and keep going. When I'm in the zone I'm gonna get there. It was dark enough to see the city lights in the distance, I snapped a pic. I tried to help show how I navigated the trail at night. Remember the first thing is to stay calm. Follow the foot prints. I've done the trail twice already also, so I could already do it blindfolded to per say. I really had no trouble until below the peak. I didn't remember all the switch backs, but I knew it was in the right direction. So it was just a lack of memory, not really a problem since I knew it was still the right way. I even finally took my Google gps out to make sure at one point and it was the normal trail. All good up the mountain, in a mix of ice patches to dirt.

I started to see some lights ahead of me..up the switch backs to the peak. I thought it could be my friends in the back of my mind. But I'm thinking they were at the top already. I get to the top and they were like woooooooow. Did you even take a break?? Haha. Yes I took a few breaks no longer then a minute though. Just take a few breathers and kept on going. I had to reach my friends and I did just that.

So it was around 10pm when we all met up at the peak and started making camp. The guys in one tent and the ladies in a tent. We had an extra tent for our bags but we didn't wanna get out of our tents because it was damn cold hahaha. It was estimated 17° that night. 21° during the sunrise.

I had thought of emergency blankets, to put them over your body inside the sleeping bag. So I got one for everyone and only Diego didn't try it. After awhile I think it worked, non of us had any cold ailments in the morning. Just warm enough to be good ya know. The goal is to stay warm, I think we accomplished that fine. During the night it was very windy. Being woken up by the tents rattling in the wind, 20 times or more was the normal experience I think we all shared haha.

So I googled the sunrise estimate for 649am. I set the alarm for 6am. I woke up and tried to take a drink from my water and it was frozen. Haha! Everyone ignored my alarm. While I lay there and check out the tent for signs of sunrising.

Around 620am there began to show light. I rushed out all hyper and encouraged everyone to come out and see the sunrise. They were like ohhhhhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Hahahaha. But they were all troopers and came out. We got really cool pics and shared the sunrise experience atop a mountain peak.

We packed up around 10 and left down the mountain at 11am

We ate pho afterwards. Getting there early evening.

I had to nap before driving home, I woke up two hours later in my car and got home around 8pm or so.

What an adventure!!!!!

Would do again just for that moonlit icy hike. Sunrise was really a bonus for me and a dream seen in person...while friends who came got to check that dream off their list too. It was such a beautiful experience. Awesome awesome!

Song

Pure Imagination (Ghostwriter Music)

All credits for the song to Ghostwriter. This song was also featured in a recent movie trailer. Great rendition!

Thoughts of the event now on 3.27.2023 - Releasing the video on YouTube with some video commentary attached.

I wrote this on 3.27.2023 about my thoughts on the event. This is what I said in the video commentary before the video plays. Edited everything together and voila! New YouTube video created!

On 3/24 to 3/25 in 2018 I had the most amazing Sunrise experience. It was not only me though, a huge shoutout to those who thought of the idea and invited me. My hiking friends Lupe, Jessica, Diego let me tag along with them to knock out a bucket list item of mine. This was not just any sunrise, it was THE best sunrise ive ever seen, it was on the top of a local mountain peak here in Southern California. Cucamonga Peak, starting off Mt Baldy Road to parking at Icehouse Canyon Trailhead.

Now.. I had to pack everything the night before, since I had to work. After work, I finished all the errands as quickly as possible and picked up some Lee’s sandwiches for everyone to eat on the peak in our tents for dinner. We had 2 tents, one for the guys and one for the ladies. I brought water for me and an extra gallon to share. That gallon was mostly frozen in the morning. In this video you’ll get to see what it was like to hike up to Cucamonga Peak in icy conditions, along with camping until sunrise. All four of us were able to see this beautiful morning in person. However, I had to hike up alone. In the ice. If I had fallen, Nobody would know. That’s why I didn’t fall hahaha. I Hope you enjoy this video with my journey leading up to the peak and this beautiful mountain peak sunrise, that was shared with 3 of my friends. Enjoy.

-Caleb

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