-White BM and Bonny BM-

SDC: #14 & 15

Elevation: 5,326 ft. & 4,574 ft.

Date Hiked: 1-23-10

Trip Report:

I had been looking to go for a hike for the past few weeks. This past week southern California had an epic series of storms which left snow above 4,000 ft in San Diego. Although there was up to two feet of snow I was still going to try and bag an HPS and a few SDC peaks. I choose to hike San Ysidro mountain becasue you can also bag 3 SDC peaks (The Thimble, White BM and Bonny BM). These peaks aree located west of Borrego Springs along State Route 22. The directions from the HPS site were dead on.

White Benchmark

I got a late start from Escondido and arrived at the trailead around noon. The drive was uneventful. One interesting thing was all of the people going to Julian to see the snow. If they only knew that the northern part of the county was less crowded. I knew there would be snow so I pack a pair of gators for the snow. I tried to find my old hiking boots but was not able to so I only had tennis shoes. I left the parking area and headed directly north, to my first target White BM.

The Slope to White BM

The hiking was slow because of the snow. There was not a trail to follow but for the first few miles there was a fence marking the boundary between private and public property. I followed this fence all the way to a prominent landmark called Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock

From here I traveled on a steep ridge north east to its crest. This was only a short ways from the summit. The actual summit required a few class 3 moves to get to the top. The views from the top of White BM were great to the south and east. I could see many mountains which I had stood atop including Monument Peak and Garnet Peak. I could also see the Salton Sea, Whale peak, Granite Mountain and Villager peak.

White Benchmark

White BM Register Can

Villager Peak and Anza Borrego

The Thimble and San Ysidro Peak

The Snow to the Desert

All along the top of the summit ridge the plants had a nice layer of ice on them

The Ridge to the Summit (Yes this is San Diego)

At this point my shoes were wet and I did not have enough time at the rate I was moving to reach either the Thimble or San Ysidro Mountain. Traversing the snow took longer than I guessed it would. I turned back and made my way to Bonny BM. This “mountain” is more like a little bump but it is on the SDC list so I decided to bag it. Although this is not much of a mountain the summit block had some great scrambling. This mountain was better hike than many of the more popular moutains on the list.

Bonny BM

Bonny Benchmark and Register Can

The register for the summit was brand new but soaked from the storm. The only name in it was Bob Burd from last month.

The Summit Register

Along the entire trip were many animal tracks from all sorts of animals.

Coyote Tracks?

Although I did not summit San Ysidro I would still consider this trip a success given the conditions.