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Ascent of Big Pine Mountain on 2011-10-01

Climber: Matt Holder

Others in Party:

Mike Johnson----Only Party on Mountain

Date:

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Summit:

Dirtbike

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

Hi-Clearance Vehicle

Peak:

Big Pine Mountain

Location:

USA-California

Elevation:

6800 ft / 2072 m

Ascent Trip Report

Did this trip with friend Mike Johnson. Neither of us have ever mountain biked before, but because of the length of this hike we brought the bikes and decided to walk the bikes up for the benefit of riding them down. Camped the night before at Ballinger OHV. Drove around from Foothill Rd to Cox Flat gate. It took us longer than expected to get to the gate and we started at 8am. Gate was locked as expected. We parked at gate and rode mountain bikes up for maybe 1/2 mile. We walked the bikes the rest of the four miles to the summit trail cut off, which was pretty obvious. We took the left fork and shortly thereafter were able to ride the bikes down a hill for a mile or so. Then was a little up and down. There was a long walk up hill until we got to the 11.5 mile mark and then steep downhill to the Bear Camp sign. We walked uphill until we got to the jeep trail. This is important for others. I walked right past the jeep trail and luckily Mike behind me saw it. It is on the left and angles behind the road. We locked the bikes (don't know why because we saw no trace of anyone the whole day). This is a scramble for the most part and there were three possible summits. We found the red High point can in the middle summit. We signed in and realized there had not been a lot of activity at this high point. Only a couple of entries over the past couple months. The scramble up took us about 35 minutes and only 10 minutes down. We jumped on the bikes and retraced. Not being mountain bikers this 31 miles was a grind. I'm sure it would be easier and faster for experienced bikers. We hopped in the car and headed back to Orange County. I guess there is enough water coming out of Chokecherry Creek to capture with a filter, but we brought enough water as to not depend on this. The trail is mostly a nicely graded road. There was plenty of shade, but also some sections that are completely exposed to the sun. We returned to the Cox Flat gate at 5:40pm. Total time up was 6 hours 40 minutes to the summit, 15 minutes at the summit and 2 hours 45 minutes down. TOTAL 9 hours 40 minutes.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

3253 ft / 991 m

Distance:

31 mi / 49.9 km

Route:

Main Road

Trailhead:

Cox Flat gate 3547 ft / 1081 m

Quality:

7 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Road Hike, Scramble

Gear Used:

Bicycle

Weather:

Pleasant, Calm, Clear
great conditions

Ascent Statistics

Time Up:

6 Hours 40 Minutes

Descent Statistics

Time Down:

2 Hours 45 Minutes

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