Hiking Club in Santa Anita Canyon

Hiking Club's April outing was again to Santa Anita Canyon. We hiked the ten mile Mt Zion loop. This canyon was incidentally saved from the 2009 Station Fire by the enormous (and successful) firefighter efforts to save the Mt Wilson observatory. And the dozens of waterfalls there are now running strong from the ample precipitation this winter. Here's a photo of one of them.

Allison Mine / Iron Mountain Part 2

Readers here may remember the epic trudge up Iron Mountain last year. This year I joined my friend Nina again on another brutal 12-hour hike, this time to the Allison Mine on the slopes of Iron Mountain.
The hike to the Allison Mine is 15 miles round trip. 6 of the miles are on what at times can best be described as a treacherous game trail featuring steep slopes, yuccas and scratchy brush that really slow down the progress. In fact we saw a pair of hikers on their way up to the summit of Iron Mountain, and then we saw them again on the way down.
The Allison Mine operated for several decades by a father and his three sons, until the 1940's. What remains are several shafts and a stamp mill and other machinery in scenic Allison gulch at about the 4500' elevation. Click on the photo to watch the 2.7mb Quicktime video.