Here is a rundown of the latest hikes that I've done. I've included a little journal with each. Pictures of future hikes are to come...
Sitton Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains: Day hike in the middle of January, 2003
Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara, CA: 3 days around the end of March, 2003
Left L.A. around 11:30 a.m. and arrived at the trailhead
around 2 p.m. I made sure to stock up on daily calories at Carl Jr.
beforehand. Anyway, here are my daily journal entries:
Day 1: Cold Spring Saddle - Blue Canyon Camp
Trail from Cold Spring Saddle to Forbuch Camp quite ordinary. Nothing more than a long descent. Forbush Canyon trail reminded me of a jungle at times. The trail between Forbush camp and Cotton camp is frequently overgrow with vegetation, which also houses the world's largest tick population. I had to stop every few hundred meters to remove the damned things from my legs. Should have put on my long pants. Damn stupid of me. Good news though, the stretch from Cotton camp to Blue Canyon camp houses the second largest tick population in the world. Got a little side-tracked at Cotton camp, had to backtrack to find the trail. Blue Canyon campsite pretty nice...right next to a stream.
Day2: Blue Canyon Camp - Mono Camp
Put my pants on in the morning to avoid the aforementioned tick problem. Unfortunately this didn't help me from getting lost three times between Cotton camp and Ronero Camuesa Road. One time, I spent 30 minutes fighting my way through a dense collection of bushes because I couldn't find the trail after crossing a river. After getting to the road, the hike was a nice stroll through rolling hills, with wild flowers lining the path. After setting up camp at the Mono campsite (which I overshot by almost a mile and had to backtrack), I went to check out the Little Caliente Spring just a mile north. The hot springs were built out with mortar and stone, creating three unique pools. Actually, they look more like giant bath tubs layered on three levels on a hill. It's a very nice construction, where the hot water trickles from one pool to the next. Met a weekend hiker there and chatted him up. Turns out this guy is a minimalist with a maximum pack weight of 12 lbs including water. Got some good ideas from him on how to trim the weight of my own pack. Oh, did I mention the gigantic tick bite on my left hip. Showed it to the hiker at the spring...will get it checked out next week.
Day 3: Mono Camp - Cold Spring Saddle
Gorgeous hike after you get past the first 5 miles of jungle. There is
a beautiful little creek running down the mountain, forming pristine pools
of ice cold, clear mountain water. Wanted to hop in one of the pools on
the ascent but the water was sooooo damned cold. Got out of the wilderness
around 11:30 a.m. Had a great time, aside form the tick problem.
Mount Lukens-Grizzly Flat Loop in the San Gabriel Mountains: Day hike around the end of April, 2003
This could be a really nice hike (and is until you get to the top), if it weren't for all the bloody smog over L.A. I got to the top of Mount Lukens and all that I saw was thick ass smog. It really sucks. The ascent is around 3000' in 3 miles, and feels really mild. The descent, which stretches out over almost 10 miles, is mostly along a dirt road. Got really, really lost at Big Tujunga Canyon. I climbed into this damned ravine and had to scramble back up. The trail sign is a little tough to find, so it took me about 2 miles of searching and 2 hours of time to find it. The other sucky thing was that I didn't look at the map all too carefully prior to the hike. It turns out that you have to ford Big Tujunga creek about 6 times to get back to the original camp site. I can't complain, because at that point the rushing cool water was a welcomed companion.
San Gorgonio Wilderness - San
Bernardino Mountain Range: Day hike July 12, 2003
I woke up Saturday morning around 7:30 a.m. in high spirits and filled with anticipation of going
hiking over the weekend. I just couldn't bring myself
to wake up any earlier. :-) The San Gorgonio Wilderness is a 1 hour 45
minute drive (traffic willing) from the south bay area, so I made it to
the Mills Creek Ranger station around 9:45. I was hoping on hiking the
Vivian Creek trail, which allows you the quickest access to San
Gorgonio's summit. Unfortunately, I arrived a little too late and there were
no wilderness permits left for that trail. I resigned myself for a permit
to the South Fork trail.
The trail head is on the northern side of the wilderness, a 20 minute drive from the Ranger station. It being 10:15 a.m., the trail being about 3-4 miles longer getting to the summit, and me being in lazy and in crappy ass shape, I decided that today was going to be an easy day. The hike up the South Fork trail starts off on a slowly inclining 4 mile walk through forest and meadows. Elevation rapidly increases thereafter, reaching Dollar lake at 8,300 ' (see picture to the left of a top view of Dollar Lake). However, when I was there, the lake's water level was about 12" instead of 12' deep, with the water being murky and very un-alpine like (unlike the picture). I ran into an incredibly friendly park ranger on horseback. He told me of how one of the women he works with left their cabin door open and 6 bears invited themselves into their kitchen for an afternoon snack. He mentioned something about 2 pounds of butter and several loaves of bread being eaten. I wonder how they got the bears back out of the kitchen.
Further along on the hike, I encountered two other park rangers doing some landscaping. Make sure that you get a wilderness permit before going on a hike in the wilderness; both groups of rangers asked me for mine. I ate lunch at Dollar Lake Saddle...there is a nice rock formation where you can sit down and overlook the valley below. The descent was uneventful, except for me running into hikers every 1/2 mile. I haven't seen this many hikers in one place yet. I guess that's why the South Fork trail is the most popular of any trail in the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
Even though I took 1.7 liters of water, I ran out with 3.5 miles left to go in the hike. That really sucked, seeing how I was already working a throbbing headache. I was sure that the lack of liquid wouldn't help me in that regard. After getting back to the car, I promptly made for the nearest store to pick up a 32 oz. bottle of Gatorade. MMMHHH, nothing ever tasted so good.