Modjeska and Santiago Peaks

Modjeska and Santiago Peaks comprise the Saddleback Formation that forms the skyline east of Orange County. They are the two tallest peaks in Orange County, and can be summited in one day.

Anytime you look up from Orange County, you can see Santiago Peak, with its vast array of communication towers. I jokingly dubbed it The Death Star due to its resemblance to the surface of said fully operational battle station.

We were to do a shuttle trip (going up Joplin trail, coming down Holy Jim trail), so logistics at the start were a bit complicated. Eventually, things got arranged and we were off!

Snow in Orange County!

The start of the Joplin trail is quite steep and unrelenting, but there were vehicle tread marks up pretty much the entire way, leading me to wonder what crazy people would attempt to drive up such roads. This led to observing at least 3 car wrecks along the trail ... so that answered that question.

Looking back down on Orange County

The weather was overcast and a bit variable, but the rains never got too heavy and stopped sometime in the early afternoon.

Can't see the thermal exhaust port from here

We encountered several groups of mountain bikers coming down Joplin trail, which also seemed quite ludicrous, but far saner than trying to drive up or down.

On the summit of Modjeska Peak (5495')

As the range of hiking ability in the group was very wide spread, many of us spent quite a long time on the summit of Modjeska Peak before deciding to continue on to Santiago Peak. By this time, one person had decided to turn around as well.

One of several wrecks along the trail

Santiago Peak was not very photogenic, owing to all of the buildings and towers near the summit, as well as the overcast conditions making for a hazy backdrop.

Colourful manzanitas

The highlight of the day was probably the hike down the Holy Jim trail. It curved along the hillside and gave nice views of the land north of the Santa Ana mountains.

A long day with a good amount of distance and an impressive elevation gain (almost 5800'!) ended with a few of us trying to correct the huge caloric imbalance that we had incurred.

http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/457086717/3101909