June 4 on the Gabrielino Trail

I joined the Bear Canyon Trail Crew on Saturday to help reopen the Switzer Falls / Bear Canyon trails. This trail is in the Station Fire footprint, and was closed for two seasons of high rainfall, so it was a mess. It was satisfying to get this favorite trail reopened for the public just as the Angeles Crest Highway finally reopened. I found that the Bear Canyon crewmembers are great to work with, know their stuff, and work hard. Their next workday is in July in the West Fork, and I might join them again for that.

Mojave Green is Not A Beer

On a hike in Joshua Tree NP this weekend, this three foot long Mojave Green blocked the way back up the canyon. I'm unsure why it was lounging across the boulder like that, but having just climbed over this rock 20 minutes earlier, I guess there's no telling where it was then. This is the first of these that I've seen, but I'm sure that more rattlesnakes have seen me, than I them.

Hiking Club in Fish Canyon Narrows

Hiking Club was out on May 15 for a hike to the narrows of Fish Canyon. Not the same Fish Canyon with the big falls that we visited last month, but a different Fish Canyon. This is in the big empty NW corner of LA County. Hiking to the narrows is a water hike, with lots of pools of clear, cool water.

Clearing trail in the West Fork

Several of us worked a project in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River today, to clear the Gabrielino Trail between West Fork camp and Devore camp. This area has been closed ever since the Station Fire in 2009, but starting Monday it will be reopened for the public to visit and enjoy again. Here's a shot of some of the trail crew when we reached Devore Camp. By the way, both camps were mostly unaffected by the big fire, owing to their locations low down in the canyon.
More photos are posted here.

Pack Trip In Santa Anita Cyn

Over the three-day weekend, a foursome of us hiked up Santa Anita Canyon and stayed in the bunkhouses at remote, historic Sturtevant Camp. Over 100 years old, they still welcome backpackers. On the in-between day we climbed Mt Wilson on a looping route up the canyon and descending the NE ridgeline. In the video, you'll notice a big tree in the foreground by the front of our cabin; the proprietor told us that that is the biggest tree in the Angeles NF, and is over 900 years old.

Hiking Club to Fish Canyon Falls

Fish Canyon Falls is a spectacular 4-tiered beauty in the San Gabriel foothills. Today we had ten hikers attend. Someday I want to return and try out that swimming hole at the base of the bottom falls. See my video.

Slide Mtn Fire Tower

Many more fire towers like this one atop Slide Mountain once existed, but sadly this is the last one remaining in this part of the state. It's not an easy climb to get to it, and the route is fully exposed to sun. The Slide Mtn tower was built in 1969, very near the Los Angeles / Ventura County line. While the Forest Service relied on staffing them with lookouts to watch for fires, they quit doing so decades ago. This one is still maintained by volunteers. Here's my video.

Snow

As you can see by this grab from the Mt Wilson Cam, Southern California's mountains received a recent dumping of snow. Today the sun is out, so it's quite a sight. The mountains are getting lots of snow again this year.

Hiking Club in L.A.

Hiking Club members appreciate interesting destinations, and once again this February we took advantage of the inclement mountain season to take one of the LA Conservancy's downtown LA guided tours. This year we walked Broadway Ave to see some of the opulent 100-year old movie palaces. This is the interior of the 2300-seat Million Dollar Theater. Sadly, not all of Broadway's movie palaces still survive, and some have been converted for other uses, but the Million Dollar and a few others still host movies.

National Trail Trek - South Mountain Park

I hiked Phoenix's South Mountain end to end with hiking buddy Mark on Saturday. The city of Phoenix sponsors the hike and runs the shuttle buses, and you get lunch at the midway point, and even a tee shirt. Over 300 people participated in the 15-mile hike, and the weather was perfect. Mark took this photo of some of the hikers atop the summit ridgeline, with the Estrella Mountains in the distance.

Henninger Flats

On a hike with friends to Henninger Flats in the San Gabriel foothills today, the sun came out and I took this photo. This is looking southwest, toward the cities of Glendale and Altadena, and also the Verdugo Mtns in the distance on the right.

Snow Falling in the SCV

In today's winter storm, Valencia was positioned exactly on the lower threshold of snowfall. Here's a shot of my back yard and the neighbors' roofs. This is actually after about two hours of off-an-on snowfall, but the ground remains warm enough to melt it. This area may receive more tonight, though. Snow is not unheard of at this elevation, but I guess this is the first measurable snowfall here since 1989. There's a funny post about this on the LATimes blog here.

Hiking Club at Death Valley NP

Our club met up again with the Honda Hiking Club, this year at Death Valley. We based at Furnace Creek and hiked for four days, including one day driving up to Racetrack Playa, where the rocks move around on the lake bed. I took this group photo along the way at Teakettle Junction (not to be confused with the website Teabagger Junction, or Dishwasher Junction, which is an entirely different kind of place just beyond the city limits of east Palmdale.)
The other days we hiked in Fall Canyon, Natural Bridge Canyon, Mosaic Canyon, and Golden Canyon.
Watch my video, or see Honda Hiking Club's photos here. I also visited the remote Racetrack Playa once before, in 2002.

Night Hike to Mission Peak

Hiking Club was out for a full moon hike to Mission Peak, in the Santa Susana range between the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys. Click on the picture for a full resolution version, and you can compare it to the daytime view last Thanksgiving Day, here.

BOIINNGGG

On a hike to the Bridge to Nowhere, we watched kids bungee-jumping. Watch a video.

San Gabriels Bighorn Sheep

I've hiked in the San Gabriel range for 20 years now, but over the weekend I got my first sighting of some of the range's bighorn sheep. Hiking in the remote East Fork of the San Gabriel River last weekend, I scared up 5 of them in the bottom of the canyon. They fled to safety on the canyon wall above, and I got this photo of a curious ewe looking back at me.

Labor Day Backpacking Trip

Three of us packed up McGee Creek in John Muir Wilderness. We hiked over McGee Pass, climbed Red Slate Mountain (13,100') and camped three nights. One night got down to the 20's, which started the aspens to turn. Watch the movie.
McGee Creek is the valley above Crowley Lake, on the edge of the Long Valley Caldera (a supervolcano that erupted 760,000 years ago, displacing 150 cubic miles of earth and wrecking all the bowling alleys.)

Hiking Club at Yosemite

The club spent four days at Yosemite this week, with hikes each day. On day 2 we climbed Half Dome, a nearly 20-mile dayhike with 4800' of gain. What a great day we had!
Here you can see the cable route up the granite dome, the final part of the climb. I also snapped this photo of a bear along the way.

August 14 Climbing Mt San Antonio

16 members of Hiking Club climbed Mt San Antonio aka Mt Baldy this weekend, as a conditioning hike for our Aug 23 hike up Half Dome. I took this shot of some of our hikers on the Devil's Backbone portion of the trail. Here is a video I took on the 10,000' summit, the highest in the San Gabriels.

Canyon Scramble / Sunken Treasure

This hike is our June favorite. We had a group of nine for a scramble down this local unnamed creek, which features a series of pouroffs and pools. Along the way, one of our hikers lost her sunglasses when plunging into this 10' deep pool from above (the slide behind). Always prepared, I dove down and Bob took my photo triumphantly returning to the surface with found beers instead. A good time was had by all.