The weather today was a cold. High cold winds at the peak, along with some winds in the shade really brought the temperatures down. Note to self, find a better moisture wicking shirt or pack so that sweat doesn’t build up on the back. Especially annoying during breaks when the sweat gets all cold.

Mt. Wilson via Mt. Wilson Trail

We had start later than normal for this hike (9:30am). So we didn’t really spend too much time at the top to relax or look around. But lunch break was enough to quickly re-energize ourselves for the trek down. We also jogged a portion of the ridge from Hastings to the connector near Jones Peak. This saved us some time. By the time we got down, the sun had already set and it was dark (~5pm). A great clear day for a hike!

The trail itself was somewhat damaged due to the rains. Some slides had ended up on the trail from the trailhead to First Water. But those were easily negotiated.

Finally, here’s the view towards Baldy. I can’t wait to finally get out there in the snow. Hopefully Sunday if weather permits.

18.5 miles, 6400 ft gain

Etiwanda, Cucamonga, Bighorn, & Ontario Peaks at EveryTrail
EveryTrail – Find hiking trails in California and beyond

Check out the rest of his gallery here, http://keeganuhlphotography.com/wilderness/icehouse2010/index.html

Thanks for sharing!

Final Stats:

7.7 miles, 4000 ft

Kearsarge Peak (almost) at EveryTrail

Had a big high-altitude hike up Mt Tyndall the following day, so I wanted to get some sort of acclimation hike in the day before. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was gonna do until the last minute; Thursday night I decided to head up to Onion Valley and attempt to hike Kearsarge Peak, which is at ~ 12,500 ft.

There isn’t a lot of information on Kearsarge Peak, but I saw a few trip reports. More mention the route of Lilly Pass on the west side of Kearsarge, while a few others mention a route the eastern and southern portions of the peak. Seeing as the description of the Lilly Pass route indicated signficant hiking on scree, I figured I could do a loop, heading up the eastern way and down the scree on the way back.

I drove out and ended up at the trailhead at 11 am. Eric (edenooch) drove up the night before and was up to do a moderate hike. I estimated this hike would be about 3200 ft gain which wouldn’t be too bad.

Well on cue with the weather forecasts calling for possible showers after 11 am, exactly at 11 am it started raining. We waited about 15 min for the rain to stop, then we headed out.

We backtracked down Onion Valley rd for perhaps 1/2 mile until a fire road appears on the north side. We took the fireroad up for a few minutes, which then turns into a trail. The trail was immediately brushed over and not easy to follow. The route that we followed is seemingly an old miner’s path, since according to my map there was 4-5 mine locations near the trail. The brush at the lower end of the trail was not very high, but after crossing a brief rock field, the brush got up to shoulder length and made following the trail a bit more difficult.

At perhaps 11,000 ft, the brush subsided into the usual rock terrain. Here the trail was easier to follow, and we continued up to the summit ridge to about 12,400 ft. Here we could see the peak- not much higher than us- near the other end of the rocky ridgeline. Given the shady weather (we heard thunder a few times) and not wanted to make a long day out of this hike, we were content to turn around here. It seems best to stay on the northern side of the ridge while traversing to the summit.

Since doing the loop required doing the traverse, we decided to head down the way we came, which was a good idea in terms of saving time and energy. We took a different route when I saw nice scree to descend almost 1,000 ft. It was great fun, as it became a form of skiing for me trying to avoid the big rocks.

After this side route, we cut across to meet up with the trail for the final 1400 ft of descent.

It seems that taking Lilly Pass would have a quicker way to the summit, although I don’t know how bad the scree would have been going up. Either way, I was simply pleased to get up to a reasonbly high altitude the day before going up to 14k ft.

Final Stats:

21 miles, 8600 ft

That was not easy!

Meetup link here

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Gorgonio 11 Peak Loop at EveryTrail

Well this was a good one. Another ideal day for such a strenuous hike, we started out on the Vivian Creek trail at 5:45 am with very cool weather. We continued up 1.5 miles until the trail meets with the creek, and almost immediately we looked for a spot to cross the creek and climb up to the ridge that would head up to Dobbs Peak.

The addition of Dobbs (and East Dobbs, a ‘peak’ per Rick Kent) by this ridge route allowed us to add 2 peaks to the 9 peak loop classic. I read some descriptions of this route previously and thought it would be a good, shorter alternative to the Vivian Creek trail, and I think it was. It was definitely steep, covering 3300 ft in 2.2 miles. A few spots at the lower end were steep enough to use hands to scramble up

After hitting Dobbs and East Dobbs, we climbed north up a steep slope intesecting the San Bernandino Divide trail, and followed this relatively flat trail all the way to San Gorgonio. On the way back, we veered off trail and ascended Jepson Peak.

From Jepson, you have to descend to a saddle between it and Little Charlton Peak. We decided to drop down the northwest side, where we found a nice sandy scree gully that really made the steep descent easy on the legs. We followed the maintained trail for just a few minutes before veering off and following the ridge over Little Charlton and Charlton peaks.

Our route up to this point was free of going down any rough terrain. Not so on descending Charlton to Dollar Lake saddle. It is very steep and rocky, slowing and spreading us out quite a bit. While still tough, I would have prefered to ascend than descend this.

At Dollar Lake saddle, John and Joseph A took the Momyer/Alger trail back to Momyer trailhead, while the other 7 of us continued on. While the worst was over, we had to move pretty quickly to finish the hike in a reasonable time. Of course at this point people were starting to tire out a little bit; many had never been as high as San Gorgonio nor stayed hiking above 10000′ for as long as we did for this hike. But at least for this portion of the hike we were following much more maintained trail with smaller detours off trail to climb 200-300′ to each peak.

Alto Diablo is but a small 30′ climb off the trail. Shields Peak is certainly the most time consuming of the bunch. It is almost entirely made of rocks, making for a nice climb up but slower climb down.

Once back on the trail we continued on up and down Anderson Peak. Here, the old Momyer trail starts. Being ~ 3:40 pm and still the hike down, 4/7 decided to descend here, leaving Winston, Mike T, and I. I didn’t really want to get down after 7 so I sent quite a fast pace as we quickly ascended San Bernadino East and San Bernardino peaks by 4:15. Our 11th peak!

Coming back, we certainly did not want to hike all the way back to the old Momyer trail start; fortunately Tim sent me his gpx file with a nice shortcut that we could descend cross-country to meet up with the trail. We started the shortcut even a little bit earlier from the trail, but this worked pretty well as we interesected the old Momyer trail right at a switch back turn 700′ below.

The rest was a fast paced descent. The old Momyer trail has a decent amount of brush hovering the trail at the upper end. We cut off some of this and just endured other parts as it was mostly low lying and not a problem with pants. There were a bunch of fallen trees, especially in one area, but this is preferred over brush! We actually ended up catching up with the other 4 toward the end, making it down at ~ 6:30 pm. With a quick car shuttle, we were done.

We then went to a sufficient, but somewhat crappy restaurant in Mentone. I need to pay attention to restaurant planning next time!

To label a hike as ‘hardcore’ must not be done carelessly, but I’d say it would fit considering the goals of this dayhike.

The plan, simply, is to hike as many of the peaks as possible in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. It’s not actually that crazy, as many others have done it before. The ‘classic’ way requires about 26 miles, 8000 ft gain to hike 9 peaks. I have tentatively fined tuned some paths so that we have the following options.

10 peaks: 22 miles, 8500 ft gain.

13 peaks: 28 miles, 10000 ft gain.

The minimal route will be similar to this trip report. Please read.

Only the very fit will be allowed on, and the permit only holds 12. I don’t expect everyone to do all 13 peaks, but based on the route we will take, those that end up doing a few less will still take the normal route just without a few side trips.

More information to follow.

Map of the tentative route for 10 peaks. The other 3 peaks are on the right side, including San Gorgonio.

Gorgonio 10 Peaks + Plan at EveryTrail

Taking this route, I’d estimate it to be about 14-15 miles with about 4000-5000′ feet of gain. Assuming you come back the same way.

Good luck!

Final Stats:

Gain: 6500 ft
Distance: 12.4 miles

First Baldy ascent of the year!

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Mt. Baldy and Lookout Mt via Bear Canyon at EveryTrail

I couldn’t hike this weekend, but had the opportunity to take a Monday hike. Given that the snow is melting away and some good reports of conditions, I decided to take the Bear Canyon trail to Baldy.

I left about 7:30 am from the Bear Canyon rd parking lot, following the creek and the houses perched up on the sides of the canyon. The first 1.5 miles gains about 1000 ft and brings you to Bear Flats. At this point it was shaded and reasonably cool. I hit the switchbacks and remembered how annoying they are. It seems the switchbacks when facing toward Baldy are steeper than the ones facing toward civilization. On top of that, there were strong gusts of wind blowing toward the south.

Once getting past these switchbacks, it is a really nice hike along the ridge. The sun was out, but I was gaining elevation quickly enough that the temperature was mild. Snow finally crossed the trail at about 8500′, and more consistently above 9000′. Parts were hard while others soft, but this was at like 9 – 9:30 am so it would soften up after that. I followed the footsteps of those who made the trek recently which helped gain level traction, though the snow still slowed me down a little bit. Finally I made the summit at 9:50 am, so it took ~ 2:20 which isn’t bad.

Summit temperature was great, but cool with intermittent winds. I checked out the views for a bit, and ran into two others who came up from the Ski Hut. Then I headed back down.

At about 8400′, I veered off the trail and generally followed the ridge that eventually heads to Lookout Mt. This ridge has a few bumps but nothing terrible (although I was swearing at the steepness of one). This ridge drops quickly down into Cattle Canyon to the west. I brought binoculars and was able to get some great views of Bighorn Ridge. My assessment is the the brush is gone after about 7000′. The portion of the ridge between 6300′ and 7000′ I am not sure about. However, this gives me confidence in the chances of successful ascent.

Following the ridgeline I eventually made it to Lookout Mt. Maybe it was just the day, but what a worthless peak. There is manzanita everywhere, and like someone mentioned, the bees are out in full force.

Couldn’t really get any views west unless I wanted to fight through manzanita. Luckily I found an amazing piece of optical equipment that was obviously used in Michelson’s experiments:

I descended down the east ridge to the saddle at ~ 5500′, I then found a use trail and descended north back down into Bear Canyon. I hit the creek, crossed over and climbed a boulder and found a use trail that led me back to the Bear Canyon trail maybe 0.25 to 0.5 miles from the start.

If I did it again, I would do the loop in reverse, keeping the steep off trail portions for uphill than down.

Final Stats:

Gain: 6000 ft
Distance: 12 miles

Well, that was steep!

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Cole Point, Mt Emma, & Old Mt Emma at EveryTrail

We met up and headed up to the northern San Gabriels, on the Angeles Forest highway a bit south of Palmdale. Here lies a few lesser known peaks, but as we learned, the hike itself was certainly no slouch. I had read the gpsmountaineering trip report detailing a one-way hike of Cole Point, Mt Emma, and Old Mt Emma with a car shuttle, and I thought that sounded good – as an out and back hike.

From the start, it was steep. The climb up to Cole Point ascended 1400 ft in 1.15 miles (23% grade). From there, we headed along a few bumps then descended northernly, bordering a shooting range. The sound of rifle shots did not really bring the tranquil feeling one may have when hiking in the wilderness, but we weren’t too alarmed as long as the bullets were aimed at their proper targets.

We descended steeply down intersecting an old fireroad, and from there we proceeded to go up and down over a series of very steep bumps of Mt Emma Ridge. These were very steep, 25-35% grade slopes, with varying gains. We finally hit Mt Emma, which has had a fire at some point since the trees on the western slope were burnt.

From there, we followed a few more bumps over to Old Mt Emma, and ate here. At this point we’d done about 6 miles and 3500 ft gain, and now we would have to turn around and do those damn bumps again! In the end, we did 6000 ft gain in 12 miles. But in some odd way, it was a pain being steep but it didn’t feel too bad.

So looks like an out and back on Mt Emma Ridge will give you one of the more challenging hikes in the San Gabriels. The views were nice and different; however it was partly cloudy above and also over the desert, or else I’d imagine even better views could have been seen.

Videos (the first one recorded some gun shot sounds, but hard to hear)