April 1 Hiking Club at Malibu Creek State Park

Upper Malibu Creek

At the production location for MASH. With a replica signpost, and a rusty old ambulance behind us

The Famous Five go to Death Valley

With Nina in town, our campsites reserved, and four days, everything was set.

Day 1: On an evening hike in Mosaic Canyon

Japanese lanterns add cheer to our Furnace Creek campsite

Ubehebe Pk, left of center, and attendants (Mark Ammerman)

Day 2 was our longest day, 170 miles R/T to Racetrack Playa to climb Ubehebe Peak in the southern Last Chance Range. 54 of those miles are on the world's worst washboard. After a stop for a photo at Teakettle Junction we parked and began our 2000' climb. The route to the saddle on the right is on an old miners' trail, then we followed a CL2/3 use path to the summit.

TJ, with the snowcapped Inyo Range to the west. (Mark Ammerman)

A giant  dust devil swirling across the lakebed behind The Grandstand

On the miners' trail (Mark Ammerman)

Looking down on the playa from atop the ridgeline

On the summit, looking north

Heading back down (Mark Ammerman)

The Grandstand is a remnant outcrop surrounded by sediment from the surrounding mountains, forming a surreal island  in the middle of the Racetrack, and its most haunting feature. (Mark Ammerman)

(Mark Ammerman)

Views from the summit are pretty amazing, even by Death Valley standards. The Last Chance Range forms the divide between vast but utterly empty basins. 

We return to the valley as Ubehebe Peak's shadow crawls dramatically across the playa

We spent the other days doing other hikes, and we even found a waterfall in one canyon. But this hike was our favorite.

March 25 on Slide Mountain

Purple lupines

 The hike to the fire tower on Slide Mountain will make you earn it, 11 miles R/T and 2000' of gain. Today I climbed it with six friends. Weather was kind, and the mountains are as green as ever this year.

The fire tower was built in the 1960's

Nina and me on top of the roof

The view south, looking down deep, wild and remote Piru Gorge

March 10: Springtime green

Photos from my local favorite hike in Towsley Canyon. I have never seen it this green before, and water is still running in the creeks all the way down to the road.

after all the rain and now warm sunshine, poppies are coming out

It was a good day in LA

My buddy Paul was in LA for an extra day, so I took the day off and we rode the Metrolink downtown and walked from Union Station through Chinatown, Olvera Street, ate lunch at Philippe's, saw all the movie palaces on Broadway, Disney Concert Hall, Pershing and Grand Parks, and finished with supper on Olvera Street. It was a good day.

The magnificent art deco Eastern Building

FirstBank building

Returning to Union Station

Sunset from Union Station

 

January 29 Rescue in the Upper Arroyo Seco

Mark and I got to watch the Sheriff's rescue helicopter plucked a fall victim out of the Arroyo below Switzer Falls.  The Arroyo is a deep forested gorge there, and on a breezy day the pilot was probably nervous as he positioned to retrieve the victim. Anyway kids, don't try to climb waterfalls, and don't let Mom try it either.

It looked like this in the bottom to another who was there:

November 25 in Topanga State Park

Overlooking Santa Monica Bay

A beautiful day with Friends Mark and Barbara on a ten mile hike in our beautiful Topanga State Park.

November Club Hike: Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area

Our November hike was 7 miles at Devil's Punchbowl County Park, on the north side of the San Gabriels. Weather was perfect, sun wasn't hot, and a good time was had by all. I hope the day was as good for the other 12 as it was for me.

Oct 15: Full Moon Hike with Hiking Club

Our October hike coincided with the full Hunter's Moon, and this month the Honda Hikers joined us for a big group of 28! We climbed Mt Lowe in the foothills above Pasadena just as the weather changed, and we got some great photos.

Moonrise over Mt Baldy

We summitted just as the first clouds rolled in to obscure the city view

The moon's weird illumination  through the clouds

Hiking down. This area burned in 2009, so a lot of dead brush still stands

Spooky. Wish I had tried taking video of this

On the return hike, in the Mueller Tunnel. Way cool...

September 10: Cirque Peak Loop

I got in one final Sierras trip, to climb 12900' Cirque Peak at the head of the Cottonwood Lakes basin. I ascended cross country on the north face, up about a thousand feet of scree and boulderfield, before summiting and descending the southwest slope to the PCT and Chicken Spring Lake, returning through Cottonwood Pass. On the summit was a Meetup group who took my picture.

The entire loop is almost 16 miles. I made this same hike in 2007 and liked it enough to redo it. It was a great day for climbing in the Sierras, and afterward I had a room waiting for me at the Dow Villa in Lone Pine.

John Muir Trail progress, mapped

OK then, the fastest ultrarunner has finished the 212 mile John Muir Trail in under four days. By the time we finish we'll have taken seven years (about 55 trail days). But in breaking it up, and with the connector trails, we'll have hiked over 360 miles and seen a lot more of the High Sierra. Honestly, thinking back of all the connector trails we've used, how few people we've seen on the passes, and how pretty the valleys were that lead us to and from the JMT, it's all just as great.

Obviously we're not hiking it contiguously end to end

Looking NW from Lone Pine. Our final segment lies between the 2015 and 2017 pins.

Next year's segment will be eight days, 68 miles, five high passes (four are around 12000'), without resupply. We'll parallel the high wall of peaks named the Palisades, in Kings Canyon NP.

John Muir Trail 2016: Finishing Yosemite

This year's JMT trip was shorter than others, at 40 miles, but we were able to fashion a five day loop trip with just a one-mile car shuttle. The segment that we needed to close was the 15-mile stretch between Half Dome and Cathedral Lakes. Weather was perfect, mosquitoes were rare, and we visited three of the High Sierra Camps along the way (Vogelsang, Merced Lake, and Sunrise).  80% complete now, next year will finish the trail with a 68-mile trip between South Lake and Onion Valley in 8 days, without a resupply.
Mark posted his best shots here.

After an overnight stay in tentcabins at Tuolumne Meadows, we're ready to start

Day 1: Crossing Tuolumne Creek, we won't see dayhikers again til day 5

Approaching Vogelsang Pass

Day 2: on the descent into the Merced River drainage

Day 3: hiking past Merced Lake

A fawn at Merced Lake

The trail on the floor of Merced Valley

Near our joining of the JMT, and looking at Half Dome's backside. We climbed Half Dome when we hiked that segment in 2010.

That stripe is the cable route. Can you see hikers?

See them yet?

Day 5: Cathedral Pass, Cathedral Lake and Cathedral Peak