I have stared at this mountain for fifteen years because it sits directly behind my house in the Cleveland National Forest. Saddleback is also referred to as Santiago Peak measuring 5,689 feet. I have always been impressed by this as it eclipses the height of my favorite mountain, Katahdin. I have often been struck that there is a significant peak right in my backyard just asking to be climbed. Unfortunately, it has taken me nearly fifteen years to actually climb it.
This is a typical view looking East in Orange County, California. One of those specs at the ‘base’ of Saddleback is my house.
When I was young, I did a fair amount of hiking, mostly on the East Coast. Then life got in the way and with a wife, kids and a career. I got busy, but mostly tired, fat and soft. Starting to hike again was mostly a passing thought. Something I should get back into. Maybe next month.
I would be reminded that Saddleback was just waiting to be climbed nearly every day. Driving home from work, the mountain was right there just waiting to be climbed. On occasion, I would look on the internet to try to figure out if there was a hiking trail but never really could find anything definitive. I traveled a fair amount and most air traffic coming into John Wayne Airport flies right over the northern end of the Cleveland National Forest. I would study all the fire roads trying to see the route up and try to figure out where is a ‘trailhead’. My efforts were genuine but never resulted in any meaningful results.
Then one day, my wife came home and in her work travels met someone who was talking about hiking Saddleback. She shared this with me and I asked her to get the person’s contact information. If he knew a trail and a route, I wanted to tag along. One of the biggest obstacles for me was trying to go it alone. Wandering around hoping I was going the right way was not something I wanted to do.
The connection and trip were confirmed with this individual, Tex. He was planning to climb Saddleback over the July Fourth weekend. I was in. This was enough to finally get me to check this ‘To Do’ item off my list. Tex was going to meet me at a location not far from my house at 5 AM. He had four-wheel drive, so I was going to hitch a ride into the trailhead, called Holy Jim.
The best part was I convinced my youngest to come with me at the last minute; the night before. Generally speaking, when I ask my youngest to do something like this with me, he turns me down. For him, rejecting my request is somewhat reflexive. In this case, since it was around my birthday, I think I convinced him to do it by leveraging guilt to push him over the line to a yes.
We met with some others that Tex had included in this trip at Cook’s Corner. My son and I hopped into one of the four-wheel-drive vehicles and we drove to the trailhead. After about twenty minutes, we finally got to the trailhead. The road in was definitely a bit rough in parts. Everyone got ready and we were finally ready to start. We walked through a small collection of cabins where people were actually living and then got on the trail.
After a short period of hiking, it was quickly apparent that most of the group was going at a pretty slow pace. My son and I were definitely in front along with one older lady that kept our pace. Early on, we would stop and wait for others to catch up but after a few times, it was clear that this was not going to work. So we just forged ahead.
The trail was single-track for maybe two-thirds of the way up and then the trail changes to a fire road. It was a fairly long trip up. There was nothing particularly technical or steep, but it was a long trip up. I was very surprised by how vast the Cleveland National forest was. When I would fly over it, you never really sensed how big it was; probably because what you can see at 10,000 feet and going 500 miles an hour.
We finally made it to the top which is mostly a collection of communication towers. There is not an obvious peak, but we did find the marker. The best views tended to be during the hike. There was good visibility West, and hiking back down you got to see a good view looking East. The views were good, but there was not a lot of wow.
The trip down seemed to go forever. I was in descent shape, but not for long hikes. We got down at about 2 PM and I was pretty tired. My legs were quite sore. We had seen our party when we headed back down and there was some question if they were going to make it to the top. At the bottom, we waited for about half an hour. I got desperate to get home and we took the opportunity to hitch a ride out with some kids that had just come down. Getting home, showered and horizontal felt great.
Saddleback or Mount Santiago was a good hike and something I needed to check off my list, but I am not sure I would rush back.
The summit looking West. The Pacific is out there somewhere.