December 10-11, 2005

Noble Canyon 2005 page 1

The Noble Canyon Trail is in the nearby Cleveland National Forest, only a short drive east on I-8 from San Diego.  The trail begins at the Penny Pines trailhead along Sunrise Highway and works its way southwestward through Noble Canyon ending at the lower trailhead near Pine Valley.  The Cleveland National Forest rates the 10.5 mile long trail as “difficult” and “strenuous.”  It was a big challenge and the Scouts were up to it.

Six scouts and five adults met at the Scout Room on Saturday morning at 6:30 AM: Nick A., Ryan, Stephen, Clayton, Mikey and their Dads, as well as Nick H.  Clyde Turner spent the morning with us and returned to meet us Sunday morning at our campsite in the Canyon.

After getting our gear together we drove out to Alpine and ate at Janet’s Montana Café for a big breakfast before stopping by the Descanso Ranger station just after they opened at 8:00 AM for parking Adventure passes and a overnight undeveloped area camping permit.   We were at the trailhead by 9:00 AM and on our way.

About three quarters of a mile into the hike we followed a path we believed to be the trail and soon found ourselves checking our maps and GPS’s.  There are several roads and paths crisscrossing the area and we had swung to the south on a spur that somebody used for shotgun shooting.   We continued up and over the ridge (view in photo below) immediately to the south and dropped down into Noble Canyon, cutting off some trail, but requiring some bushwhacking.