End Pavement

Last October, Alex and Otis and I, along with Pharaoh the standard poodle, took a hike up Box Springs Mountain, chronicled in this post on Celsius1414: “Box Springs Mountain, Riverside County”. Before today, I’d done that hike three times, I believe. Also, we’d done the Two Trees Trail twice. Today, we combined the two hikes.

Alex had borrowed a GPS unit to try out today, so hopefully we can get some real data off of it later.

Here’s a view of both trails in one 3D picture (click for larger):

Parking is in a dirt lot at the farthest end of Blaine Street in the vicinity of UC Riverside, at 1245′. A short distance away is the trailhead for the Two Trees Trail, about 100′ higher. The top of the trail is at about 2305′. Around 1.5 miles one-way to the top, through some nice terrain that gives great views of the university and out to downtown and beyond. Here’s a 3D view of this trail by itself:

Here’s the rest of hike from the perspective of the other side of the mountain:

This portion is about 2.3 miles one-way with a 725′ elevation gain from the parking lot. According to the map, this is officially Box Springs Mountain Road, but it’s dirt in various states of repair all the way up, providing access to the various towers and antennae dotting the top.

The views were hazier today than they have been in the past, so not as much could be seen past a certain distance. Despite this, however, there is still much to see.

The tally for the day:

• 8.04 miles
• 1,805′ elevation gain
• A little under 4 hours

I should have some actual photos later on. Photos here.

With this hike, I’ve also officially gone over 100 miles for the month, combined walking, hiking, and biking mileage, which was a goal of mine.