Red Box to Mt Lawlor, Barley Flats, & Vetter Lookout
Final Stats:
Gain: 5200 ft
Distance: 13 miles
A one way traverse through the heart of the San Gabriels
Others’ photos and Meetup link here
This was a great traverse made efficient by use of car shuttle. After dropping off cars up off the ACH near Vetter Mt, we started up the steep south ridge of Mt. Lawlor from Red Box. I had descended this way previously and it had annoyed me and reminded me of Iron Mt with the annoying yuccas so close to the steep use trail. But going up was much better.
Hitting the peak of Lawlor, we did not hit any snow to that point. We then traversed easterly along a ridge heading toward Barley Flats. Along the way we ran into a good amount of snow, generally about a foot deep, but around pretty safe terrain. We hit a water tank where we decided to eat lunch on top of and got some great views of the area.
After, we took a somewhat brushy trail for about 3 miles that descended down to Upper Big Tujunga Rd near Alder Creek. The trail was not in terrible shape but apparently had just been cleared a bit earlier in the day! (thanks HikeUp). We did some exploration along Alder Creek but ultimately climbed out and gained a ridge southwest of Vetter Mt. This ridge was generally west facing and exposed with a slight use trail. It was hotter than I expected on Saturday and with this exposure I was definitely consuming more water than I expected.
We connected up with a ridge heading SE for a ways and finally veered east and northeast to the summit. A nice spot to relax for some views, and the trail up was a good workout. Overall the gain was 5200 ft, more than I expected, but happy with!
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Trip Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
