Jacumba Mountain

20-Feb-88

By: Rob Langsdorf

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The San Diego Basic Mountaineering Course conducts its map and compass training in the area south of Jacumba. My group had signed up for a "strenuous" outing. We spent the morning wandering along an old jeep trail from the Thousand Trails Campground that is just north of I-8 and east of the SD & AE Railroad. During the afternoon our map work was cross country but at the cautious pace of beginning map readers.

Just east of the quarry in the northern part of section 21 We stopped so everybody could confirm our location . As we were standing there one of the ladies asked, "Aren't we going to do anything aerobic today?" I assured her we would.

After another student led us into the flat north of the "tunnel" and a final location (3440) confirmation I took over the lead. We headed for the base of a rock rib that descends west from high point 4224. On the north side of this rib there is an easy gully with a hint of a use trail. We followed it through the' major saddle (4O50) and then picked our way up a steady 10% grade to the ridge leading north to the summit. Along the way we made 3 stops to note various features and how they related to our map. Even so we made it to the top of Jacumba Mountain (4612) with in an hour.

Those signing in were Bart, David Laudon, Melissa Rice, Larry King, David Winsby, Ken Rockwell, Curt Robison, Eva Mcatty, Sylvia Roddock, Don Badstrom, and myself. This was the first DPS summit for nearly everybody except the leaders.

By sunset we were back to the flat at the base of the mountain. There I announced that we had come down the wrong gully and they would have to determine our location. After 3 legs of night compass travel the students brought us right into our camp. Great training for those rare occasions when the sun goes down too soon on a DPS outing.


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