EISPIRATEN

Atop the ridge with the old firebreak north of Mt Lukens.

Somewhere between Tujunga flagpole and Mt Lukens.

This was a great San Gabes weekend for me, I decided to shorten the drive on Saturday morning by sacrificing some of my Friday evening. I spent the night at Monte Cristo campground where I tested my new-to-me Tarptent Protrail. It's a palace inside compared to the Notch but that's a different story....

Girl Hiker wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 6:55 pm I made it out alive. But no one cares.

Pics or it didn't happen....

Definitely some nice groups of oak trees. Nice place for a picnic too!

Seems like January to April would not be enough time for bones to be picked clean. Of course the story doesn't say that...

It's not just the distant views, the wall looking at the other Maria peak is mighty impressive too.

Since I have never visited this place it was about time to go, especially with warmer weather approaching. A relatively late-morning drive got me to one of the last two parking spots and I wandered around the facilities for a while looking at various plaques and diagrams before heading out on the tr...

Three liters of water from snow and puddles is pretty impressive! No snow in any of the pics so it must have been well-hidden.
Keith, if the ankle is just as sore as the rest of the body I think that's a good indicator of its' health.

Nice, never hiked in the Lake Hughes area but looks like a good hike for a cloudy day. Mt Lukens is on my to-do list as well. I want to come up the 'Kill 'em Quick' and follow the camel back ridge to the summit. Then probably go down one of the other trails for a point to point with quick car shutt...

I met up with Girl Hiker on Saturday, rain was in the forecast for afternoon so we thought the morning might be conducive to hike. My intent was to head up Mt Lukens since I've never been there and it's getting close to warm season when it is a less attractive walk. After a quick stop at McD we were...

You are welcome. I didn't even know this was a real thing - we should do a hike to commemorate it next year.

Yes road cuts seem trivial, but a 10 foot cliff that stretches unbroken for a mile along a mountainside can definitely fuck up your route... Especially when you find one after taking a steep downhill for a while.... I've started considering how hard it would be to go back up while in the midst of s...

I was there a few weeks ago and also missed the snow I thought I might catch a little bit by going up the ridge but nothing there. Instead I chopped back some of the yucca and had some tea and Snickers for breakfast.
At least you saw some white stuff on the road.

Girl Hiker wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:24 pm Last week I hiked to Dawn Mine in search of mushrooms. Lots of water in the canyon and many, many stream crossings. I managed to keep my shoes dry with all the skipping, hopping and jumping over rocks.....

It's a lot more fun to just power through the water!

That's cool. Both times I've been there it was too windy for any insects to leave tracks.

I did that very hike Christmas Eve of 2018 when I got stuck at home all by my lonesome self for Christmas, and then came down it on a different hike November of 2022. A good little workout! Not really sure why that trailhead is so popular, but the whims of the public can be hard to explain.... Whim...

Saturday I was up early as usual so instead of the regular Wilderness Park walk I drove out to La Tuna Canyon Road. I've seen people walking this place for about 40 years, this is the first time I've stopped to check it out, arriving at 7am. After a bit of road walking I went up and down the obvious...

I'll add some thoughts and pics too- Thanks Nate for another out of the way location, I like new areas and my mental list of stuff to visit is still expanding. Jeko, thanks for the tools since I once again left a spatula behind. Lunch wouldn't have been the same without them. Rico, I never had any G...

Mill Creek below Hidden Springs. They are real tiny, the flower is barely an inch diameter.

Forgot to mention I cairned and flagged 3310.

February 11, 2024 I'll admit to being inspired by Sean and Cecelia's trip to Glendora Peak just for the snow-capped mountain views. I wanted some of that without the crowds that would be going up Baldy Road so I headed a little west to the Big Dalton area. I had never been on the Monroe Truck Trail ...

This is definitely the season for water explorations, thanks for sharing.

I read a LA Times story saying they were on the Bear Flat trail which is 3.5 miles, it didn't specify if that's one way or round trip. Their footprints were in the snow and they still got lost. It was a possible problem because the helicopter couldn't land on the west backbone area. I don't know at ...

I've always assumed that we don't do firebreaks any more is because now we use helicopters and fire retardant. It's a lot of money to support firebreak maintenance.

Wow, it looks like you did a lot of clearing! I'm not usually that ambitious, just enough to squeeze through is enough for me. Since you did the hard work it's now my kind of hike.

It was a really good day to be on that trail, I feel like every other time for me it's been hot. Real hot, which is why I always say I don't like it. After taking the lower route along the creek I might be starting to change my mind.
Thanks for the invite!

I feel pretty fortunate that none of the tree branches broke while I was climbing.

REI now carries a guidebook.

Pretty amazing event, nice job just to finish.

The book pages are the same method used in the Barkley Marathon.