Shooting for a PR up Big Iron’s ‘trail’…

Final Stats:

14 miles, 7100 ft

Click for more stats

I knew if I did Iron ever again via the standard south route, it would be to try to see how quickly I could get up. Otherwise, I would prefer to take on more exploratory routes.

Well that day ended up being yesterday, partly because I knew a meetup group was heading up there, and I was able to get a few hiking buddies to go with me who wanted to try the same thing. The day was reasonable in temperature as it ended up being around 50-60 degrees the whole way up, so I was able to pare down to a reasonable 5 liters of water for the hike.

My general goal was to get under 3 hrs, but really just try to goal all out while ‘hiking’. So my stipulations were to 1) stay on the established trail and 2) not run. And I did have Rick Kent’s time in the back of my mind.

Steve, Fernando, Scott and I left the parking lot at 7:15 am. I maintained a brisk walking pace, and continued up to the first saddle non stop ~ 30 min later. Here we took a brief stop.

I really didn’t want to stop to long, so we continued on shortly after, switchbacking up and going across the undulated ridge that eventually hits Coldwater Saddle 4.4 miles in. This ridge was even more annoying this time only because I wanted to get done with it as quickly as possible to start the real pain up Iron’s south ridge.

We got to the saddle in 1hr20min, and stopped for a minute. Scott wasn’t feeling well and decided to rest there; us 3 left kept going. I didn’t look at the time again until the top; I knew I just wanted to push. I was feeling pretty good up to this point. Of course it gets really steep immediately after the saddle, but I was able to keep my legs chopping at a seemingly good pace.

Eventually I was just breathing really hard, perhaps for the last 2000′ or so. It all looked like this at that point!

Heading up Iron Mountain from Zé Apelido on Vimeo.

My legs were starting to feel it pretty bad. My right calf and a random ankle dorsiflexor were stiffening up almost begging to cramp, but they didn’t. I felt like I was slowing down a little. I met up with Dave G 500-1000 ft below the summit very briefly then continued up. I couldn’t wait to be done moving. At that point, I started to get a little extra push and was back at my pace. I finished off the last few hundred feet very hard and breathing VERY deeply. When I got to the summit I just dropped my bag and just stared at the ground for a second. Zach was there; he heard my breathing just before and was probably thinking “WTF is that?”.

I looked at my GPS and got Moving Time: 2:35 + Rest Time: 2 min = 2hr37 min. I was pleasantly surprised!

Fernando summited perhaps 10 min later, and Steve after that (included taking care of business along the way up). We hung around for a good while as the meetup group hikers made it up.

Zach and Dave G were planning on heading over to Baldy. While people were chatting I took a jaunt along SA ridge going down and over a few bumps. There was snow on the north side but it seemed mostly avoidable. I took some scout pictures and headed back up.

After some brownies, we headed back down.

Descending Iron Mountain from Zé Apelido on Vimeo.

Today, for the first time on an Iron hike, I’m not sore. For me, it’s time to retire the south ridge.

But in any case, I’ll still be writing weekly trip reports from my hikes. I’ve got some good ones planned out including Iron Mountain set for this weekend. I should actually utilize the “Upcoming Event” category more.

Just to let you in on some things I’ve been wanting to do or have been working on:

> Updating the “Find a Hike” page – I want to totally do a redesign of that page. When I have time, I’ll actually sit down and start coding things up.
> “Layman’s Guide to Hiking Series” – Yes, lunch is supposed to be on the table, and I’m setting a deadline for myself to getting around to writing it. My deadline would be the 23rd if not sooner.
> Trying to plan the “Geek Hike” – This would just be a meet & greet of all the local bloggers. If you should be reading this and it sounds interesting, then send me an email to johndquan-at-yahoo.com.

Come this April, I actually want to get back into photography so I’ll be diverting time away from this site to my photography site. Although, not too much attention.

Final Stats:

Gain: 5200 ft
Distance: 14 miles

The housing market crash has forced me to be a bit more economical.

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Baldora and Widco Mine Hike at EveryTrail

This was a good adventure. The goal was to check out the area around the old Baldora/Widco mine in Dry Gulch, which lies southeast of Iron Mountain and next to Coldwater Canyon. The most feasible way to get there is by taking the Heaton Flat trail to the prominent saddle in which 3 trails diverge. The old trail to the left takes you to Allison Mine, the use trail straight ahead and up takes you to Iron Mountain, and the brushy trail to the right takes you down to Coldwater Canyon. This is the trail we took.

After hiking up to the saddle (~ 3000 ft gain in 4.5 miles), we started along this unmaintained trail. It immediately became pretty brushy, which was expected. And very soon we came upon parts of the trail that had been washed out, and the negotiation added some adventure.

The trail continued to be washed out in several areas; however, it was passable without much danger. The brush was annoying at times, but certainly less of a deterrent than the washed out trail. Getting down to the canyon bottom took a decent amount of time. Along the way, I was peering at Bighorn Ridge, Widman Ranch, and other landmarks. I thought I noticed some use trails heading up toward Bighorn Ridge, but I could have just been hallucinating.

Once we got to Coldwater Canyon, we turned north and veered to the left to make sure we went up Dry Gulch. This combined some rock hopping / bouldering and following an intermittent use trail along the left bank.

Now, on USGS maps and my garmin map, it is indicated that the Baldora and Widco are two separate mines, although people mention them as one. I wasn’t sure, so we made sure to check out both areas as indicated on the maps. The first is the Widco mine which is a bit lower and on the left side of Dry Gulch. There, we found an old shack and some equipment.

The actual location of the shack was a bit lower than the mine location as marked on my GPS, so I scrambled up a hundred feet or so until I was at the marked location. I ended up just around some large rocks which could have been the mine, but I did not see an entrance but admittedly did not thoroughly explore. I did notice that I scrambled up to more level ground, and as I walked down it, I realized it was an old road bed that went back down to the shack, so likely the mine was located where marked.

After that, we headed a bit further up the gulch and over to the right side to check out Baldora Mine. Here we found even more remnants including a shack and some big machinery. I’d assume this machinery would be placed close to the mine entrance, although we couldn’t find any.

Again, the actual location of the mine as located on my gps was a bit higher up, so we climbed up east toward the ridge splitting Dry Gulch and Coldwater canyon until we hit the spot. Again the location marked put us by some boulders, but no mine. After that, we descended and headed back the same way.

It would seem that there were indeed two mines since there was equipment and shacks in two locations though we did not actually find any mine entrances. I would guess there was at least one entrance but we just simply did not find it. I was tempted to continue hiking up toward Gold Dollar mine as brush was not a problem; at that point it was more trees and low-lying brush. But, that’s for another day.

Click on this link to interact with a topo map with the mines marked.

The marker on the bottom left, “E”, indicates Allison Mine, which we had an extremely successful and fun journey up to in January. Stanley Miller mine “F” certainly has my attention, but being so far from a trailhead I will wait until good night temperatures to do it has an overnighter up the East Fork. Marker “A” indicates the Baldora Mine. It can be accessed from the same Heaton Flat trail that is used for access to Allison mine, as well as link up to the strenuously climb up the south ridge of Iron Mountain. From the end of the trail at the Coldwater/Allison saddle, there is a Coldwater Canyon trail that leads down to – you guessed it – Coldwater Canyon.

From there, any trails on the topo map will be nonexistent. Those trails are so old that they have totally been overgrown by now. However, I have heard access to Baldora mine up Dry Gulch is not too bad of a cross country expedition. I cannot say the same for the two abandoned mines further up.

So for now, we’ll stick with trying to get to Baldora mine. The Heaton Flat trail is tough but not ridiculous, ~ 3000 ft gain in 4.5 miles. We’ll then descend 500 ft or so, and then end up climbing about 1000 ft to get to the mine.

One the way back, there will be some elevation gain but it should be less than 1000 ft. So in total, I estimate

Distance: 14 miles
Gain:4500-5000 ft gain
Terrain: use trail, cross-country, BRUSH (wear pants)
Difficulty: 8.5/10

I imagine the most difficult portions of this hike being the end exploring around the mine…which people do not have to do. And I have no idea how much of the old machinery is left – likely much less than what we saw at Allison Mine. But remember, it is the journey not the destination!

Tentative elevation profile from the saddle to the mine:

Gain: 3500 ft
Distance: 13 miles

Allison Mine, one of the more difficult mines to reach in San Gabriels, provided a superb dayhike adventure.

Please also look at John’s report

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

11 people showed up for this trip, all expecting and not phased by any poor weather. We started from the East Fork parking lot at about 8:45 am, which was about 45 later than I had planned due to some logistical issues. However I expected it to take us about 8 hrs for the hike, so I thought we still should be able to complete the hike before dark.

East Fork to Allison Gulch, Allison Mine, & Heaton Flat Trail at EveryTrail

I planned this hike out to be a loop hike, taking 2 trip reports from Travis Linds (gpsmountaineering) and combined portions of the them. His trip reports indicated that the trails, though previously not maintained, were actually not in bad shape as previously thought by many people.

In fact, as we reached the Heaton Flat trailhead, we ran into a group of San Gabriel Trailbuilders. I told them where we were headed, and they raised a few eyebrows saying “that trail up Allison Gulch has been washed out”. I asked when they last heard this, and it was several years ago, so I mentioned updated info indicates the trail is actually being partially maintained. They were definitely NOT happy to hear about this, indicating the illegality it. I accepted this though thinking, ‘well these guys weren’t gonna maintain it’.

So we headed off up the East Fork, and encountered our first river crossing. John has a video of me crossing.

We continued up the river, encountering a few more crossings that ate up a bit of time. I was somewhat concerned of us being behind schedule, but we picked up the pace and arrived at Allison Gulch in decent time.

The beginning of the gulch:

We headed up the gulch following a faint use trail and crossing the stream multiple times, which was relatively easy and quick. The gulch is a very nice shaded area, probably lovely all times of the year.

I had marked a waypoint for where the beginning of the trail up to Allison Mine should be, and it was evident when we got to that point.

The trail up to the mine, as mentioned by Travis, has definitely been maintained. Portion of the trail has rocks embedded in a line for support, and yuccas have been trimmed:

I actually really liked this trail. It was very steep, but did not need to use hands, and the views were great. One could say that some portions of the trail had been somewhat washed out, but nothing unreasonable.

One could see Swan Rock clearly from this trail

We continued up as the fog came in, and the trail eventually heads east toward Allison Mine.

At this point, I was looking for any indication of the old trail heading toward Stanley Miller mine. While ascending up, I was convinced I could see some indication of a trail higher up and along the contours of Iron Mt’s west side that would be that trail. However, when I reached the area where this trail would have started, nothing was clear.

I checked out one use trail, but that quickly headed into some thick brush. I then found some other use trails around a talus slope, and headed up a portion of the way. There were some more faint use trails around it, but again nothing was clear.

Anyways, we headed to the mine from this point. Someone has been camping out around here!

The first hole we found had two separate tunnels that went in probably 30 yards or so with a few branches.

Stupid commentary

Look out for John’s TR, which should photos of the bigger, and more interesting mine shafts. In the mean time, Ofir and I headed up away from the trail, trying to see if anything was left around the actually GPS coordinates of the Allison Mine location. We found plenty of rusted pipes, and some bones:

We headed down and met up with the rest of the group, and went on to check out the old Allison Mine trail that connects with the Heaton Flat trail.

At this point, not many pictures were taken as it started raining, and we were running into more wet brush that made us nice and soaked. Regardless, this trail was not in terrible shape either. It has more brush and more parts partially washed out than the trail up from Allison gulch, but it is certainly passable. Yuccas have been trimmed, so what else do you need? I suppose we are getting relatively desensitized to a little brush. I’d say this trail was less annoying than the ridge up to Monrovia Peak.

This trail did seem to take a while, but finally we connected up at Coldwater Saddle, and took the Heaton Flat trail back down. We got back at 4:45, practically 8 hrs from our start!

This is a great hike, and one that I suggest anyone to try if they are not afraid of a little brush.

I got quite a strong sense of perspective when reading through old Sierra Club trip reports for Iron Mountain #1. Specifically I fell upon this trip report.

57! 57? FIFTY-SEVEN people summited?! When we did the hike this past fall, we had 14 people make it up and I thought that was a huge success.

I know people have more hiking group options these days, but it’s unlikely to get 57 people to a hike in Griffith Park let alone the hardest hike in the San Gabriel mountains! It’s hard to fathom that many people wanting such a strenuous hike…have the times changed that much?

How much is due to hiking being more popular back then versus people just being more active?

The mine can be reached in a few ‘practical’ ways: 1) Take the Heaton Flat trail to Coldwater Saddle, where the old Allison Mine trail starts 2) Head up the East Fork, veer east up Allison Gulch, and ascend an old use-trail to the mine.

Both options will require about 6-7 miles one-way to the mine. Option #1 will deal with a lot of brush and unmaintained ‘trail’ especially on Allison Mine trail, while option #2 deals with hiking along the east fork of the San Gabriel river for some miles and up the gulch, then taking a steep ascent up to the mine.

My preference is to take option #2 up, and option #1 down.

Expected Stats:

Gain: 3000 ft
Distance: 13 miles
Steepness: 883 ft/mile
Terrain: Cross-country = Water crossings, steep unstable use-trails, brush
Estimated time: 8 hrs
Difficulty: 8/10 for intensity, 9/10 for terrain

Trail Descriptions:

Summitpost

Professor Brennan’s Trip Report

This is a tough hike so you must absolutely be in great shape to do it. It won’t be as strenuous like 5000 ft + elevation gain hikes, but the varied and difficult terrain will provide a workout and is only advised for those comfortable with cross-country hiking.

Location

This hike starts at the East Fork Ranger Station parking area. The first few miles will cover the same hike as the Bridge to Nowhere. Each car will need an Adventure Pass for parking.

Meetup Link here

My Pictures

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Iron Mountain #1 aka Big Bad Iron at EveryTrail

15 people signed up for this painful journey. We planned to meet at 7 am at the East Fork parking lot, and 5 left at 7:15 while I waited for some others to get ready and we left at 7:30. 5 people were not there, we assumed started a bit earlier and 2 had texted they were pretty late. One guy actually had “prepared” for this by doing part of the hike on Thursday! Who the hell would want to hike Iron Mountain 2 out of 3 days? I guess he didn’t summit on Thursday, so that would give the motivation. And he was supposed to start earlier so I assumed he had.

Anyways, getting to the trailhead, I notice this sign, which I do not remember from before:

Interesting for a couple of reasons. 5 miles away would approximate the distance to the main saddle at before the steep ridge to Iron begins, and I know there has been some discussion on what the name of it is. I don’t remember anyone considering calling it Coldwater Saddle! And also, the fact that it lists the distance to Coldwater Canyon is intriguing. Is this trail still in use? I assumed the trails off of the saddle were unmaintained…

Luckily we started early enough to avoid sun during a good amount of the hike to the saddle. The temperature was not too bad either. Going up and down these bumps along the way didn’t seem too bad, but maybe that was because I wasn’t pushing too hard.

At the saddle, topo discussion begins. For anyone who has been here, there is a faint trail to the right in this picture that curves to the southeast – it is neither the Allison Mine or Coldwater trail. It covers up quickly in brush but I still saw some remains, but I guess its nothing formal?

I took a little break and explored the two aforementioned side trails. I walked about 50 ft on the Coldwater trail which was getting overgrown in brush, but looked passable. The Allison Mine trail definitely has not been maintained. I walked probably 200 – 300 ft on it. It was still passable in this area but certainly not the most stable terrain. I saw some footprints so at least someone has been checking it out. Definitely intrigued for future exploration

We continued up and, of course, it was steep. This trail gets my legs. I could be going slow and not breathing really hard, but it will still wear out my legs. It’s just so steep in parts that it burns my calves like no other. Needless to say most of the 2nd half of the hiked look like this:

and this:

Of the 10 people who started at the scheduled time, 9 summited. The one who didn’t had only planned to go to the saddle anyways since his knee was bothering him. One other only planned to go to the saddle, but was motivated and kept going and made it as well! 3 people had started earlier, 2 of which also had only planned to go to the saddle, but they ended up just pushing and going all the way. All people under 5 hrs. Quite inspiring!

One hiker and I have been talking about eventually doing the trek on the San Antonio Ridge. He decided to check out the portion just up to Gunsight Notch.

He said it looked pretty intense. We got some contacts of some people who have done it before, so in the future we might try to get them to take a few of us up. But, that’s another adventure for another time.

In the end, the guy who did part of the hike on Thursday didn’t show up early as he had overslept. But he still came and made it up, as well as the 2 others who showed up about an hour late. So in the end, 14 out of 15 people endured the entire painful trek. I’d say it was the most successful hike I’ve organized.

“Iron Mountain, at 8007′, is by far the least accessible peak in the San Gabriels…Someone signing the summit register called this “The mother of all hikes,” which it is, at least for the San Gabriels.” – John Robinson, Trails of the Angeles

Hike Details

Time: 7:00 AM at the East Fork Parking Area

Distance: ~ 14 miles rt

Elevation Gain: ~ 7200 ft (6600 there, 600 back)

Gain / Mile: 1000 ft / mile

Estimated Time: ~ 10 hrs

Terrain: Trail, Ridge with loose scree, annoying Yucca plants

Difficulty: 11/10

To Allison Saddle (just before ridge where it gets really steep:.

Distance: ~ 9 miles rt

Elevation Gain: ~ 3500 ft (3000 there, 500 back)

Gain / Mile: 780 ft / mile

Estimated Time: ~ 6 hrs

Terrain: Trail, annoying Yucca plants

Difficulty: 9/10

Hike Description

Let me be very clear. This is the hardest hike I have done. While Mt Whitney slows people down because of the altitude, it is not steep. Iron Mountain is the definition of steep. I think it was harder than Whitney for sure – it is the only hike that has left my legs sore – and very sore at that.

Iron Mountain lies in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness (its real name is Sheep Mountain) west via ridge from Mt San Antonio (Mt Baldy) and just east of the East Fork and Bridge to Nowhere. It’s placement offers clear views of much of the San Gabriel high country as well as inland.

The hike starts at the same place as for the Bridge to Nowhere hike, but could not differ more after that! The first 1/2 of the hike ascends the Heaton Flat trail, which by itself offers a solid hike.

Once the trail ends at Allison Saddle, we gain the ridge up that goes to Iron. This portion is brutal, covering more than 3500 ft in less than 3 miles. Not only is it steep, but there is loose scree that makes you work a little bit harder every step!

Coming down the ridge is the final straw. You have already spent most of your energy, and your legs are close to done, but the steepness requires you to work even more. By the time I was down to the saddle, my legs were done. And though the extreme steepness ended, there was still a little bit of uphill to go. Utterly demoralizing!

I estimate that the best time I could get on this going up would be 3 hrs. Based on my estimates of other hikes such as Baldy, people who want to make it to the top should be in excellent condition, enough to make it up under 6 hours.

What to bring:

Long sleeves (to avoid the brush!)

Lots of water 7 liters for me (depends on weight, if you don’t know, you shouldn’t be doing this)

Hiking pole – especially for the downhill. Or a walking stick of some sort

Hiking Partner – I will probably stay with a group that can make it up in 4.5 hrs. If you are going to take more, bring a partner, otherwise I will not let you do the hike.

Difficulty MUST READ

For those in the best condition. This hike requires the energy expenditure of a marathon run. If you aren’t training hard, this hike isn’t for you.

You must have hiked with me before – you then know the difficulty that I’m describing. If you haven’t, you’d better read this and message me.

We will go up

And up

You may run into stinging brush

But if you are mentally and physically conditioned, you will ascend

via Zé from last hike

Getting There

We will be heading to the East Fork, though we may carpool from Azusa first. Every car will need an Adventure Pass

You will approach and intersection with Glendora Mountain Rd. You’ll want to head to the right of the tree, but then make a left after it.
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