What is that, a railway? And, what's with the asterisks?
All will be explained!
After going to Big Dome last week, this time I continued my rambles in the Santa Monica Mountains by taking the "Mishe Mokwa to Tri-Peaks and Sandstone Peak" route (link).
The Mishe Mokwa trail branches off from the trail that goes to Sandstone Peak, and it shortly goes through a canyon with some climbing activity.
Then you reach a side trail to Tri-Peaks, which consists of three large boulders. There's conflicting information about the rating of them. I would estimate it at Class 4+ because it starts going vertical without clear hold near the top. I could see myself choosing a wrong combo of holds and getting stuck, or getting up but having trouble getting down. Since no one was around, I decided to save it for another day. So, that's the first asterisk.
Then I reversed down the side trail and at this point I should have gone directly to Boney Mountain but instead went to Exchange Peak. I took what looked like a use trail but it devolved into more of a trail suited only for rabbits. It ran into the actual use trail, and, while brushy, it's all Class 1 to the top. So, this is the first legit peakbag on the trip. The All Trails waymarker says to avoid this side trail but I'd suggest taking it. I didn't see a benchmark or register.
I then had to double back to the junction with the Tri-Peaks side trail to take the Backbone trail to Boney Mountain. It looked, at least from the trail, that the rocks on top would at most be a light scramble. However, the problem was very heavy vegetation. I looked around for a use trail and descended down the Backbone trail to the other side but still didn't find one. If I were wearing a suit of armor covered with DEET I might have just walked through the bushes, but I'd left that at home. In retrospect, the use trail might be at the start, before the Backbone starts descending. I'll test that out next time, and this is the reason for the second asterisk.
Then, I briefly visited Inspiration Point, followed by Sandstone (the highest point in this range). I'd already done Sandstone before so basically the only new peakbag on this trip was Exchange. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable day.
Note that because there are lots of things with similar names, I added a map of my route. The whole ridge is called Boney, there's a Boney Mountain (the one referenced above), and there's also a Boney Peak (link). The latter is between Inspiration Point and Sandstone Peak; I didn't do it because I didn't know about it until later. So, that's another destination I'll add to my list.
