PCT Workday

After a day spent treading and clearing the PCT, in the Station Fire area of Section D.  An outstanding group of volunteers!

Pull My Finger

Here I am, demonstrating the power of a single finger, and with nine to spare, I shall be a rock-climbing force to be reckoned with.  In a climbing class with friends, Memorial Day Weekend at Joshua Tree.

April 27 / 28 Paddle Trip in Black Canyon, NV

Black Canyon is the segment of the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to Willow Beach (on Lake Mohave).  Just 12 miles, it's a fun paddle trip but by stopping for hikes it can be stretched out to an overnight trip. Black Canyon has hot springs on both sides, and visitors have improvised pools to capture the water in the canyon bottoms. There are desert bighorn sheep (we saw some) and lots of waterfowl. Put-in is underneath the spectacular new concrete arch bridge that bypasses Hoover Dam. After the trip we overnighted in Boulder City NV, a great old town with no gambling, and toured the dam's powerhouse. Here's the video.

Hike to the Top of Yosemite Falls

Here's Paully and me after hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls. What a view! It's the tallest waterfall in North America. See my Quicktime video of points along the hike here.

Hiking Club on the Mt Lowe Railway Loop

17 came out for our March 24 hike on the old railway bed of the Mt Lowe Electric Railway. The 12 mile hike takes in several historic sites including this one on Echo Mountain, site of a hotel that burned down in 1900. In the foreground you can see the rails, still in the ground, that millions of people rode on, up until the 1930's.

Hiking Club in LA

The February Hiking Club outing was again to downtown LA, to see old Main Street on an LA Conservancy tour. Yes, Los Angeles has a Main Street, and it is getting revitalized with new loft housing these days. Until just a few years ago, it was a Skid Row; now new people are moving into the neighborhood and occupying the rehabbed buildings.

Archaeology Hike in the Sierras

This weekend was accompanying Mike The Desert Rat to our stomping grounds in the south Sierras in the shadow of Lamont Peak. Today Mike was touring a small archaeology group to our previous finds. The archaeologists pointed out to us many things we'd previously missed, such as bedrock mortars, grinding slicks, and more paintings (like the one pictured above, which was under an overhang). Amongst all the lithic scatter, I even picked up an artifact that turned out to be a broken obsidian spear point. One archaeologist explained how we could know that and why. I don't collect artifacts, I consider it unsavory, so after photographing this point it was left where I found it.

At Will Rogers State Park

On a hike at Will Rogers State Park today, the weather was perfect and the air was crystal clear. Here's a photo looking out over Pacific Palisades, at the afternoon sun shining off the ocean.

Happy New Year

On New Year's Day I hiked with friends in Los Pinetos Canyon (a tributary of Placerita Canyon). Weather was pleasant and very clear. The attached photo was the view across the San Fernando Valley.

Dec 10: Full Moon over the San Gabriels

A screen grab tonight from the towercam on Mt Wilson. It's arguably the most interesting web cam in Southern CA, and it captures great nighttime images too.

Dec 3: Point Dume

Hiking Club was out today for a two-mile hike along the Malibu coast, here are a few of my photos. 27 hikers came out for the hike to Paradise Cove and a beach picnic afterward.

Nov 26 Sunset

I snapped this photo of the crescent moon and Venus from the summit of Mt Hollywood last night. (Video, no sound)

Nov 13: Hike in the Zabriskie Hills

During a weekend trip to Death Valley, I and intrepid hiking companion Nina climbed Manly Beacon in the Zabriskie Hills. On the way up, a Meetup group from Las Vegas passed us, so they were on top when we arrived. (Video, no sound)

Night Hike in the Hollywood Hills

On October 8, twelve Hiking Club members hiked to the summit of Mt Lee, site of the famous Hollywood sign. This was my first hike up there at night. The sunset was incredible and after the storms this week the weather was perfect, with clear dry air and temps in the 60's. The views of Hollywood and downtown LA were incredible.

Mt Williamson in the Sierras

For years I've driven up the Owens Valley and looked up at 14,375' Mt Williamson, and wondered about climbing it - the 2nd highest peak in the Sierras. After Inyo NF changed the rules this year to permit climbers access to the area in late summer, we discussed it and got a permit for Labor Day Weekend this year.
It's a far tougher climb than Mt Whitney, owing to:
1. Mt Whitney has a maintained trail constructed to its summit, while Williamson has a CL2-3 route;
2. Mt Whitney's trailhead is at elev 8000', while access to Mt Williamson is by the Shepherd Pass trailhead at 6300'; and so
3. Williamson's distance, terrain, and elevation gain are all much more demanding.
Our permit was for 5 days. While some experienced climbers can cover the 29 miles / 8000' of gain in a single day, we're not them. So this trip's schedule was two days each way, with a long summit day in the middle. Our foursome camped at 12000', as close as practical to the mountain, and we STILL spent 13 hrs to summit and return to camp.
Photo above shows the Williamson bowl and the mountain's spectacularly irregular and intimidating west face. Photos below: opposing Mt Tyndall, with its much more organized geometry (and ominous Batman shadow), the view down the west side chute; and Mark, Nina, Michelle and me on the summit.
You can view the video here.

7 Days in the Sierras: THE MOVIE!

Am posting a Quicktime video of our time in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. You can turn down the sound, since there's some loud wind in it. The last bit is a 360 from the summit of Mt Donahue.

7 Days in the Sierras

Had a foursome for this trip, which included a hike from the Mammoth lakes area, through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, out at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, and return on the bus. This trip was postponed by 6 weeks due to the record snowpack this year.

Still, we couldn't avoid snow, as north-facing snowpack still lingers down to about 10,500'. We spent two days on off-trail excursions to climb to 11,100' North Glacier Pass and 12,023' Donahue Peak, and found 11,000' Lake Catherine still mostly frozen over. I've never been to the northern Cascades, but right now the Central Sierras look like photos I've seen from up there. Most of this pack snow will stop melting within a month, and refreeze for another year.

August 6: Hiking Club on Mt San Gorgonio

11,500' Mt San Gorgonio is the highest peak in Southern California, and we summitted ten hikers today! This was a 17-mile round trip day, with 5500' of climb from the Vivian Creek trailhead. Everyone did well, and posed for this group photo on the summit. At the end of the hike, in the dusk, our hikers spotted two different bears in the Forest Falls area.

August 5: Bodacious swimmin' hole

Six or seven of us hiked down Deep Creek in the Lake Arrowhead area, to have this swimming hole all to ourselves. The water was great, and a good time was had by all.

Birthday

How did I celebrate my birthday this year?
With a birthday bash weekend with Northrop friends in San Diego:

By climbing Skyhaven Peak in the Sierras:

By visiting my hometown of Wheaton IL with my Wheaton buddy, Paul:

And by meeting my cousins Danny and Tommy Corcoran in Wrigleyville (Chicago) for dinner: