I failed to bike Mount McKinley, failed a hike to the Pinnacle, but I did see the Aqueduct Cascades.
So, the plan for this day was three events: I'd bike Mount McKinley via Gold Creek (link), then I'd go see bison in Santa Clarita, then I'd cap it off by seeing the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Obviously, it didn't work out that way.
Gold Creek is in a rarely visited corner of the San Gabriels, not far from a place called "Reptacular Ranch" that's been oddly packed the couple times I've been that way. The asphalt ends at the ranch and the road becomes dirt, steep, and rutted. A 2WD may or may not have trouble with that part. However, the dirt part is only about a mile before you reach the trailhead.
I'd actually hiked this trail during the pandemic specifically because few visit it, but I'd forgot what it was like. This time I biked it and that was a mistake. I'm not a great MTBer nor do I really want to be one. As meek as the trail was, it was too much for my skills and I hiked-a-bike most of it. Then, the singletrack trail takes a fork. During the pandemic I continued on the trail, but for this I was to get on Boulder Canyon Road. It wasn't much of an improvement compared to the singletrack so after a bit I decided to turn around and come back to do this as a hike. The fact that the weather was unseasonably cool and the clouds were so low that I wasn't expecting to see anything when I got there played a role.
In order to avoid the singletrack return, I came back on the same road, ignoring the fork and then I turned left onto the continuation of the dirt road I'd come up on. Except, that's private property so, kids, don't try this at home. I had to lift my bike over a large metal fence but I was able to crawl between the slats. I don't think there would have been much plausible deniability involved if I'd been caught on that road, so take the trail.
Then, still in the grips of summit fever, I decided to see if I could get The Pinnacle. That's a 3,837' peak near Dillon Divide/Kagel Mountain. Due to the low clouds I couldn't even see it from the Divide. I'd read an old Bob Burd trip report where he'd mentioned a use trail but I didn't know where it was. But, I figured it'd be after the cistern you see in the photo. There was somewhat of a use trail but, as the broken glass thinned out (apparently throwing beer bottles from the cistern is the thing to do in those parts) it soon devolved into nothing. I was bushwhacking through thick brush and whatever rabbit trail I'd been following had disappeared. The pic is from when I decided to turn around.
I've since done some research and found out the use trail is 2.7 miles up the dirt road that starts at Dillon Divide. (That's not the one you see in the pic: that one goes to Kagel. It's in a channel you can barely see in the lower right of the photo. Note that Kagel is also known as Contract Point.)
So, two failures down, I decided to get a win and drove to Santa Clarita for the highlight of the trip: bison.
Then, after that, I visited the aqueduct that supplies water to Los Angeles. I did the Cascades loop (link) and I really can't recommend it since it's just a 1 mile walk along concrete through an abandoned golf course next to a housing development. One of the streets there is named "Nicklaus". Dream big!
I briefly - very briefly - considered scrambling up the dirt to get a closer look but I decided they probably closely monitor the area and it wasn't worth it anyway. The pics at AllTrails are better than mine anyway.
