A bit harder than the 11 peak SGW hike.

Final Stats:

26 miles, 8500 ft

Photos are geo-tagged
Click for more stats & gps files

Ok a lazy trip report. Last year we did 11 “peaks” of the San Gorgonio Wilderness in a very nice, hard hike out of Forest Falls. There were still 6 peaks left that would have added significant work and made a very long day ala Rick Kent. So the plan was to do another hike for those peaks, and that day was yesterday.

My initial plan was to start out of South Fork, but I thought that would just be way too many miles. Then I thought about Vivian Creek, but realized that would be probably 10,000 of gain. Finally I thought I could get away with a direct assault on Grinnell via it’s north ridge. This would keep the total elevation gain “low” (7500) and keep the miles ~ 20.

We got a permit for the Lost Creek trailhead although I wasn’t planning on really being on it. However, looking at the lower terrain (no pic), I didn’t think it would be fun or fast to go cross country at this altitude. Not that there was heavy brush, but there was enough to slow us down. So we opted to start on the Lost Creek trail, and then diverge onto Grinnell’s NW ridge instead of N. This worked out pretty well as we gained enough elevation on the trail to allow the vegetation to clear up before getting on the ridge.

And eventually it turns into a really nice forested area for about 2,000 ft till the top of Grinnell.

The problem is that the the ridge has some flat sections, and it curves around to Grinnell, and combined with some additional miles on the Lost Creek trail, we probably lost time compared to what I thought we could do on the north ridge (in theory).

From Grinnell, we dropped down to Fish Creek saddle, and then headed toward Mineshaft saddle and along the Sky High trail. It was nice being on trail for a bit following the x-country up Grinnell. We dropped down to the Tarn and headed up the steep face of Bighorn Mtn.

Bighorn was a tough climb with scree, but Dragons Head was a bit easier but definitely a cooler and more imposing peak. There is a use trail up the NE side looking down all the steep, crumbly rock to the SE.

At this point, we were probably about halfway but had already been out about 6 hours. I thought we could get it done in 10 hours – I don’t know what I was thinking! We headed back up to the Sky High trail and back to Mineshaft saddle. We did a quick jaunt up Zahniser, then back down and over to Lake Peak.

Lake has a nice little summit with good views to the W and NW.

We headed off east to Ten Thousand Foot ridge. 2 guys took a break from the peakbagging and we would meet up with them back on our descent. It seemed I wasn’t picking a great route as we were continuously climbing over fallen trees and scrambling over rocks. It took longer than expected to reach the 10 K ridge high point, but were rewarded with great views.

We headed back to Fish Creek saddle x-country, yet more slow going. Finally we made it but had yet another 500 ft climb up to Grinnell, but at least there was a use trail.

The way back down seemed never ending; even though it was a ridge it seemed we weren’t losing elevation that quickly. Finally, around 7:30 (we started at 6:30), we hit the Lost Creek trail and took that back as it got dark out.

We finished with a whopping 26 miles, and 8500 ft gain, and a lot of cross-country. It was one of my worst underestimations, partly because of the changed route. Everyone talks about the “9-peak challenge”, but I think this hike was even more of a challenge.

I’m still not sure on what the optimal route on bagging these peaks would be. Perhaps using the south fork trail, or Grinnell’s north ridge. Well actually Fish Creek trailhead could be the best, but with the long drive and dirt road I wasn’t considering that.

It is cool that all these peaks really were different, even being in the same area. Different terrains, different trees, different views. A great time overall.

Snow Creek in the summer = a strong candidate for ‘mother of all hikes’ in Southern California.

Final Stats:

15.5 miles, 11000 ft

EDIT: I am adding some wisdom for those who want to do this ‘hike’. This is not a hike, this is a off-trail scramble / climb. If you even want to attempt doing this as a day hike, you need the following requirements

1. Go with someone who has done the hike before. Not easy to navigate, even with GPS coordinates (which have higher error in with high canyon walls).
2. Be able to sustain 2000 ft gain / hr on normal trail for a long period. Like hiking Skyline (8500 ft) in 4 hrs. This is going to take you at least TWICE as long to get to San Jacinto than via C2C
3. Have strong navigational skills. Understanding where you are going is extremely important. You don’t want to take the wrong chute and end up cliffed out, or simply run out of time.
4. Be comfortable hiking through brush and stinging nettle.
5. Be comfortable with sustained class 3 climbing at high altitude and when fatigued.
6. Prepared for conditions (snow, ice, etc…). Do you know where water is available? How high is the last source? Very tough info to get and prepare for
7. Plan on spending the night

Photos are geo-tagged
Click for more stats & gps files

Snow Creek is a relatively popular spring climb for its potential to have 5000′ of sustained climbing on snow. Not being a mountaineer, a spring climb never appealed to me. But when Snow Creek Steve posted pictures of he & Fernando doing the climb in the summer, I was highly intrigued. The climb looked beautiful and had a lot of scrambling. When Steve suggested doing it again, I was in.

The old standard was a route trespassing through DWA’s private property up the canyon. Since a bunch of ninnies started announcing all their illegal plans online, the DWA cracked down, leaving people looking for an alternative. Rick Kent and GigaMike explored a route along the ridge east of the creek, and Steve and Fern have done and “refined” this route 5 or so times, so a harder, yet legal alternative appears to be set. Add on the increased difficulty of rock scrambling / climbing instead of a snow ascent, this route is very strenuous!

We started a bit after 4 am about 1/3 of the way up Snow Creek Rd. Fern couldn’t make it, but he still got up and help us with a car shuttle. Then he went to go run / cycle up the tram road for a while. At 4 am!

After traversing SE for a while, we approached the base of the ridge. It was very steep, and I probably was carrying too much weight as usual. This was going to be fun.

After 1500 ft of climbing the grade lessens a bit and we get our first view of San Jacinto

We hit a bump at 4300′ and began a slight descent while traversing on the west side of the ridge. You can sort of see a shelf in the terrain to follow, but it wasn’t that easy.

Most of the traverse was a mix of this

It took ~ 80 min to do the traverse down to Falls Creek. We took a break under the trees below

After a short climb onto the west side, we connected up with the old route on a use trail. We reached Snow Creek at 5400′ and took a nice break. I wanted to ice my ankle a bit but the water was so cold I could only hold it in for 30 seconds! Steve took his weekly nap:

While I was resting I saw this rock that looks a lot like an angry man’s head. Maybe he’s watching you to make sure you don’t trespass!

After a bit we continued up, where the rock scrambling begins. I let Steve go first so he could check out his favorite plant, stinging nettle.

We approached the chockstone, and took this chute to the right to get around it.

Then we hit the main slab of snow left, with perhaps 800′ of climbing. And it’s melting away fast.

Now if you know me, I have no real interest in winter climbing, but I knew this short climb should be relatively innocuous – it wasn’t that steep and it would have been hard to slip on that snow. The main concern was making sure we did not step walk around parts that had been severely melted away underneath.

The crux may have been the transition from snow to rock. According to Steve a few weeks ago there was a direct transition, but now there was a 3 foot gap that we had to jump across. Our main concern was that the snow would give out when we jumped, but it turned out pretty solid.

We hiked underneath a few more snow tunnels. This was really cool and one of the main things I was excited about seeing. It did not disappoint.

Now, we’re at around 6800′, so there’s still 4000 ft of scrambling left! It was a lot of fun, but tiring. Climbing up is more work than walking up a steady incline for sure, and that definitely adds up on this route. We took the chutes that end up directly hitting the peak (R R L R).

I was definitely feeling it. I was drinking lots of fluids but still getting a headache. Not surprising since I hadn’t been hiking much lately and was not used to the altitude nor whole day exertion. Heading up the final chute was a nice feeling.

We hung out on the top for a brief moment before heading down. It was an exhausting 15 hr day, but well worth it. The views were spectacular. There was a unique feeling of isolation in the canyon, we could see the 10 freeway but were so many hours away from people. This is definitely a special hike/climb and the toughest I’ve done.

As for avoiding private property, this is the route compared to DWA’s property.

A “little” stroll in the mountains just outside of Tokyo.

Final Stats:

20 miles, 6300 ft

Click for more stats & gps files

If interested, other Japan walks with geo-tagged photos we did here.

During a vacation filled with lots of urban sight-seeing, I had an open day available and gladly choose to explore less densely populated areas of Japan.

Of course Mt Fuji is the first choice of many, but with significant snow cover for a few thousand feet and being more than 2 hrs away, it really wasn’t feasible as a dayhike for me. So I stuck a bit closer to Tokyo.

Mt Takao (Takaosan) is one of the most popular hikes in the area, if not the most. I found mention of it in the Lonely Planet and used that as a base for planning a longer hike. I found additional info on other peaks sharing a ridge, culminating in the high point of Mt Jimba (857 meters). Seemed it would be decently long but not a ton of gain, and when you have a chance to hike in a “Quasi-National Park“, you just do it.

Getting There:

There are two main trains you could take out of Tokyo. From the Shinjuku, you can take the Keio Line to Takaosan-guchi Station, or take the JR East Chūō Line to Takao then take Keio Line the rest of the way. Right outside the station, you’ll see a big map of the trails up to Takaosan, and likely a bunch of hikers hanging out.

A short walk from the station leads to a lower tram station that you could take all the way up to Takaosan. Just past, the trailheads appear. I chose the Inariyama trail as it was relatively short and the first trail along the walk. The trail starts out steep with built in steps.

Up to Mt Takao, the trail switches between steep and flat sections like this.

I saw a lot of people on the trail, and even more on the summit. This photo doesn’t even do justice to the ~ 200 I saw 10 min later.

I probably said “konnichiwa” at least 50 times, so it was really good practice. Since a lot of people draw out the end, I started saying “konnichiwaaaaaa” and I have to say it felt good. Sadly my vocabulary was probably 10 words overall so I couldn’t do much more!

At this point I had “only” climbed 1400 ft, so I figured the traverse to the other peaks would add on maybe another 2000 more. I headed west and quickly reached the next peak, Koboteshiroyama. Some girl jogged past me wearing Vibram Five Fingers…and a ninja outfit. Some sort of black and yellow crazy thing!

I left to continue onto the next two peaks. This was a nice area with fewer people and more solitude. I really enjoyed the lush green and tall-treed forest here; not bad for being so close to Tokyo. The route seemed relatively flat, but had a lot of ups and downs of a few hundred feet at best. And the parts that actually go up are steep.

After a while, I thought I was getting close to the final peak, Mt Jimba, when I reached the summit of a small bump that I hoped was it merely because I had already done 8 miles and was ready to turn back. I set and ate a to-go sushi set when a few Japanese guys stopped to rest. I “communicated” with them with many hand gestures and a few phrases (I didn’t bring the phrasebook with me) if this was Jimbasan and they indicated it was further. Although disappointed, I was fine with turning around.

Moments before heading off, the ninja trail runner girl hit the peak and took a rest. I asked if she was going to Jimba and she indicated yes. Well damnit, if the ninja trail runner is gonna go to Jimba, so am I!

The peak was about another 1.5 miles further and I made it in good time. Unfortunately the clouds ruined the potentially nice views in all directions from Jimbasan, but at least it had this, whatever it is

Motivated by the ninja and a few other trail runners (and time), I decided to run the way back. This worked out pretty well except for the portion that I went on the wrong trail for a 1/2 mile and had to turn around. I avoided the temptation to just follow the trail down whatever ridge descent it was taking since I may have ended up who knows where. (Posthike analysis indicates this would have taken me to some main road, so probably would have been okay)

Overall, this turned out to be a monster of a hike, about 20 miles and over 6000 ft gain (even without my side excursion). I would highly suggest this hike (or a subset of it) to anyone who has a day to hike while in Tokyo. It’s not the best of Japan, but quite feasible and really nice.

Extended from the first sample I took, here are the photos from the first 4 chapters of John Robinson’s The San Gabriels

Ch 1: Early Peoples
Ch 2: Missions and Ranchos
Ch 3: California’s First Gold Rush
Ch 4: Herders, Horsethieves, and Hunters

Peakbagging continues in northern Thailand…

Final Stats:

8 miles uphill, 2800 ft gain. (12 mile downhill bike ride)

Doi Pui Hike (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Everytrail Link & GPS Files

Walking around the streets of Chiang Mai, one occasionally glances to the west and notices the prominent twin peaks of Doi Suthep and Doi Pui (“Doi” meaning peak). It probably comes as little surprise that I wanted to do a hike to the summit.

While there are many ‘trekking’ opportunities through tourist agencies, I was finding it difficult to obtain any real information about hiking all the way up to the peak from some decent distance below. Frankly, there just isn’t that much tourist demand to do some relatively strenuous hikes so I understood why there wasn’t much information.

Resorting to my usual perusal of the internet for hiking information, I came across one site that discussed a hike to the summit; however, they took over 30 miles to complete it! No thanks!

Luckily, we found a mountain biking brochure and I happened to read through it, and I discovered one biking option that allowed the participants to hike up, and bike down. And the hike would head near the summit of Doi Pui.

So we signed up and the morning of showed up at the office of the mountain biking company, Mountain Biking Chiang Mai. Immediately I was talking to the owner, Adon, into getting us a guide to take us all the way to the summit. And I wanted to start further down than the original plan. It turned out that Adon himself was going to be our guide, and he was immediately questioning whether or not we would be up for such a hike. A little indication the sort of hikes we do normally changed his opinion quickly enough into now thinking about how he would stay with us!

So we hopped in a songthaew and headed up a mountain road. Everyone else was doing the biking and we were deemed the crazy ones because we wanted to go up more than go down.

Perhaps halfway up, Rachel, Adon, and I were dropped off, and began hiking. The hike started on a paved road for a few minutes, but then we headed off onto single track.

Thailand is certainly more lush in vegetation than southern California. And there’s bamboo.

Some creatures made a loud piercing sound, apparently this was a mating call!

After a mile or so we continued along an old road bed. The road bed had moderate grade with a few shorter steeper stretches.

We ran into a few people living up on the mountainside.

And roosters staring me down

After a small lunch, we headed up the NE ridge toward the peak. And here we were treated with some socal grade steepness!

Along the ridge we had some nice views to the west

And then reached the summit of Doi Pui

And to top it off, we took some bikes down (only paved road this time)

And so completed a lovely trip in the countryside of northern Thailand.

Final Stats:

9 miles, 4500 ft gain

Steep!

I did a morning trip in the Verdugo Mountains starting at Brand Park on the southwest end of the small range. This is a good quick drive from downtown LA, and really packs some punch. There are two trails at the beginning, one starting behind to the left the library (more common) and one starting behind to the right. Both are very steep, averaging 1000 ft/mile which includes some flat sections. The trails meet up about halfway and then continue up a firebreak to the Las Flores fireroad. This is basically a good turnaround point; you can also continue on up to the small peak to the east.

On the way down, it is very steep initially. Keep way to the right where you’ll see a small trail separate from the main wide open space. Additionally,you can make a loop out of it and take the Brand Park fire road down, which is much less steep.

I ended up doing this 3 times, although my gps must have shut off before the 3rd ascent. It’s pretty exposed so not great during warm weather, but works well with the ANF closure!

The Hawkins loop hike covered a lot of area that was burned over by a large fire in 2002 known as the Curve Fire. The fire was allegedly started by “candles associated with a ritual involving the use of fire and animal sacrifices” according to the USFS.

Not only did it burn a large amount of land, but I believe closed the 2 and 39 highways for long periods. Additional info.

Final Stats:

Gain: 5400 ft (6300 ft for all excursions)
Distance: 17 miles (18)

Got brush?

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

Well, this one was quite a scouting trip, and exhausting at that. The goal was to try to get up to Bighorn Ridge and we were able to do that, although it definitely required dealing with a good amount of brush.

We set off from Cow Canyon saddle and heading down the fireroad, hitting up the bottom in about 5 miles. We headed up a mile or so up Cattle Canyon until nearing the area deemed as a reasonable starting spot to head up. We met up with HikeUp and discussed potential routes, and figured that there was obvious best way (although there were bad ones). So we began climbing up.

It’s hard for me to illustrate the terrain as I didn’t take a lot of pictures going up. We were simply dealing with a good amount of brush off and on, and I needed to use my hands to clear instead of take pictures. As it turns out, it seemed that in places there was a faint, old use trail of sorts switchbacking up. However, a considerable amount of the path was blocked with brush, usually some combination of yucca, buckthorn, or manzanita.

Open areas were still very steep, but appreciated. The lower half of the ascent seemed to be relatively more covered in brush than the upper, although in both cases we had to resort to crawling around at some points.

It took us probably 3.5 hrs to make it up to Bighorn Ridge, in approximately 2 miles! A solid 1/2 mile per hour clip. Much of this was dealing / breaking route as well as finding best pathways.

At this point, we were planning on heading along the ridge with a goal to get to the bump at ~ 6300 ft. While the rest of the group began to traverse along the eastern edge of the ridge, I checked out the western side and some views of the San Antonio ridge.

There was some faint trails heading both north, south, and west down into Coldwater Canyon. It is too difficult to tell if its from human use or just game trails, but I was intrigued. I continued northernly on this side of the ridge following some faint game trails and eventually climbed back up to the top of the ridge. I had gained distance considerably faster than the rest of the group, who was dealing with more brush and rock bouldering.

We continued on further a bit, but it was already pretty late and we decided to turn around. We didn’t get to the bump I ideally wanted to get to, but we had seen a decent portion of the ridge. The portion ahead still had considerable brush, but I think doable.

At this point we turned around and headed back. The descent took about 1/2 the time of the ascent, given we knew our path better & and had broken trail.

As for estimating the rest of the ridge, I would imagine it would be slow going up to some altitude (maybe 7500 ft?) where the brush would clear up, and from there it would be just elevation gain. I think this would be a big undertaking, but doable as a dayhike. I think exploring this portion now will make the ascent to the ridge much quicker next time as long as I remember the path, which I should.