PDF Map

Document with description of closure boundaries

However, there are some previously closed areas that are now open…including the north side of Mt Waterman and the moving the closure line north of the ACH a bit west past the Winston Peak / Winston Ridge area. Additionally, it appears the south border has moved further north in the Monrovia Peak area. I can’t offer specifics as I’ve just glanced at the pdf map at moderate resolution. The text document offers more specifics. Any comments on specific changes are appreciated.

A beautiful day, not so beautiful burned areas…

Final Stats:

16 miles, 5200 ft

View more stats and maps

Set up another last minute hike with the meetup group, and just before 8 am off we were up the Old Mt Wilson trail, or ‘Old Faithful’ based on my hiking past.

The day was very clear, though a bit warm. Starting early lessened the extent of heat and sun exposure, but still the first 1.5 miles of the trail is uncovered. Luckily, we made this in good time and then got to some more shade.

Although I don’t have a picture of it, from the drive up it appears someone made an big effort to create a firebreak on Jones Peak’s SE ridge. And from what Ray said, apparently this continued all the way to Hastings Peak and the toll road.

We continued up, breaking at Orchard’s Camp and then on to Manzanita ridge. Here we saw some lady smoking. Seriously? Are people just that moronic / careless? No wonder these fires start. For some reason I didn’t say anything, but man that’s disappointing.

Up and away to Mt Wilson it was. On the toll road, we got our first glimpse of burned area – the east side of Lowe, Markham, and San Gabriel Peaks.

(I suggest taking a look at my photo album below as I took in more zoomed shots of here and the rest of the burned areas I could see.)

Getting up to Mt Wilson, we traversed across to the eastern end. Here we got some expansive views on a really beautiful day. Unfortunately much of that clarity gave sobering views of the burned areas:

And many more. The whole area is just toast. Waterman and Twin Peaks look alright, Devil’s canyon and the San Gabriel Wilderness are at least partially burned. AW’s west ridge idea now looks feasible . Triplet Rocks area still has brush .

Barley Flats and Lawlor were just annihilated. Strawberry too, although I didn’t get great views of it. The album describes better than words.

The top of Wilson’s Peak was relatively untouched. When I got to the north side, I could smell the charred wood / brush pretty strongly. You could see evidence that at least some fire got right up to the paved road, as some trees’ bases were burnt. But the area was not affected collectively. It looks like a nice job fighting off the fire very close to buildings.

And then we headed back down the same way.

So it appears another weekend of ANF closure is in store.

I wouldn’t rely on the reopening for the following weekend either, as the forest service may decide to hold out until the coming heat wave passes.

For those who explored the San Gabriels, most would agree that this area might be the most splendid in the range. I am hugely dismayed.

What can this 747 do? Well, it can drop about 20,000 gallons of retardant or water.

Check out the video below to see it in action. If you want to see the good parts and not have to listen to the Fox11 anchors talking their normal nonsense, then just skip to 3:30 and 10:00.

Also, here’s an article to debate over from the LA Times, “Air tanker drops in wildfires often just for show.” What do you think?