Often times we find ourselves being limited to our own thoughts with so much stimuli out there that will distract you from thinking outside the box and limit your possibilities to the point of painting yourself into a corner. I have lived in Riverside for the last two years and to be quite honest, I can't stand it with the exception of my roomates, who are by all accounts amazing people. Living in Riverside has put me 20 to 30 miles father from the places I love and enjoy. Gas being close to $4 a gallon and limited funds make it much more of a challenge to get to those places I enjoy and can literally be the deciding factor between eating or putting gas in my car. The San Gabriel Mountains have always offered me the perfect refuge to the daily grind and was a pretty close drive for me in the past. this was something I both took advantage of and took for granted. Unfortunately after moving to Riverside my escapes began to become far and few between. As a result, I found my yearning for the Mountains growing stronger and stronger but my limitations prevented me from doing so. This was a great source of depression for me.
Desperation turns to ideas. About 12 years and 70 pounds ago I was a rabid rock climber and in search of virgin rock to do a 'First Ascent'. Driving around I was always looking for rock, anywhere. Working in (ironically) Riverside at the time. I always drove by this mountain with a big 'C' on the east side and a big 'M' on the north side strewn with huge boulders much like those on Mount Rubidoux. I did a little exploration of the area and found some bolted crags and later a guidebook for those bolted crags. Through these discoveries I found out this was a county park called Box Springs Mountain Reserve. After that I pretty much forgot about the area except when I drive by it occasionally.
Years of good living and lack of activity, aside from being in a band (more on that in a future post) my health has been on a bit of a decline. I turned 45 last August and i'm beginning to feel my age and the lack of activity is not helping. Christmas day was a quiet one for me and gave me a chance to reflect on my health and what I should do about it. Hiking always provided an opportunity to not only improve my physical health, but my mental health as well. Upon those reflections and given my financial limitations I had and epiphany: Box Springs Mountain Reserve! A quick internet search yielded a small wealth of information about the Two Trees Trail. Most folks were raving about the quality and convenience of this hike. The day after Xmas i was determined to see for myself if this was indeed true or not. I loaded the dogs up and proceeded to find out. Finding the trailhead was a bit of an initial challenge but was by no means a discouragement. Once found I was pleasantly surprised. I descended into a small shaded creek filled canyon with tall and mighty Sycamore trees. That was a great inspiration for me because this place is literally on the edge of civilization and completely caught me off guard. The trail sharply climbs out of this canyon and steadily moves up to a slightly steep ridgeline. Suddenly all of the sins of the past few years began to rear their ugly heads as I started moving up the trail. Most people could view this as a bad thing, but for me it felt great. As I progressed I noticed how quiet it was and the views of this rocky canyon were sublime. We got about 3/4 of the way up to Cassina Springs which the dogs enjoyed a quick drinks. I decided to turn around at this point with the resolve to to return within the week.
That Saturday I returned with my son, my co-worker and fellow hiker Miguel and his three daughters. Everyone was not only surprised but all thoroughly enjoyed the delights this hike had to offer. This time we topped out and enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables. There was a information kiosk which had a map and description of other trails in the area. Despite a little smog, the views were still great. The hike down was just as awesome as the hike up affording and entirely different of the trail as well as great views of the city. Miguel and I want to eventually do a full moon trip which should look like this:
This place is so close and full of challenges that I vow to return and experience the various fruits Box Springs Mountain Park has to offer.
Much like the lessons learned in the days of Hardcore don't accept the limitations of somebody creating something for you, Get off your ass and create it yourself!
Further Information: Here
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