Taking the steepest trail up Mt Baldy to three neighboring peaks.
dayhikes
Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes you turn around to avoid being eaten by one.
"No, sir, that Minotaur isn't going to get out of this!"
So said the person who designed the western trail to Mt. Sally, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Rocky Peak (
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Still glowing from my visit to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, I hiked the fourth (or sixth) highest peak in the Santa Susana Mounta
Electing and hiring people based on identity rather than job qualifications turns out to have been a bad decision.
Whittier Hill (
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No peak, however small, is spared my peakbagging efforts.
"I wouldn't say I'm specifically a hero for what I did. The real heroes do what I did and drive a Prius."
Most of the "peaks" are just bumps on a large ridge, but there were a dozen of them so...
I failed to bike Mount McKinley, failed a hike to the Pinnacle, but I did see the Aqueduct Cascades.
This was a hike with a large Meetup group near the Salton Sea. There were a few spots of fairly easy scrambling.
Mt Bliss (
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"Mt Bliss" has the sound of some Alaskan 17er, or maybe a neighbor of Mt Vinson. Set your expectations a lot lower...
It was another pleasant Simi Valley Saturday there in steep ridge land...
What is that, a railway? And, what's with the asterisks?
All will be explained!
I came back for more of the Upper Cabin trail but this time I took a rougher route up.
On Feb 1, 2025, parts of the Angeles National Forest reopened after the devastating Eaton Fire.
Oat Mountain (
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This is more of a road walk than an hike, but it is to the highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains along the north edge of the San Fernando Valley.
No, the title isn't a law firm: it's five peaks near Mt Wilson that I biked and hiked.
These are pictures and a video from the "Satwiwa Loop and Upper Cabin Trail" (link) on the western edg
In Utah, just over the border from Page, Arizona, lies one of the most coveted hikes around: The Wave. This is not it.
These mushrooms were almost fried.
One of the highlights of the GSRT2024 was hiking Mt Taylor outside Grants, New Mexico.
Grants is a small town about 80 miles west of Albuquerque and you can see Mt Taylor from the latter.
Great Sand Dunes (
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After spending a few weeks in your more Alpine areas, it was a huge relief to get back to something warm and dry.
It was a harrowing, 14-hour climbing excursion via the toughest route up Mt Evans aka Mt Blue Sky.
Reynolds Mountain is an 9,130' peak near the Logan Pass visitors' center in Glacier National Park. I failed due to weather.
Mt Oberlin is an 8,184' peak in Glacier National Park that's near the Logan Pass visitor center. While AllTrails says to "proceed cautiously", SummitPost calls it "friendly".
A nice moderate hike in Glacier National Park to two waterfalls.
Grinnell Glacier (
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It doesn't go to a peak, but this is one of the top hikes in Glacier National Park.
On my way to Glacier National Park I had the not-so-bright idea of visiting our hat, aka Canada.
Normally I'm all over things volcanic, but this national monument didn't live up to expectations.
I kicked off my Great Summer Road Trip 2024 Extravaganza by hiking the River Trail to Thousand Island Lake in the Sierra Nevadas.
I was hiking up Mt. Baldy when a wildfire started.
Before the devastating Eaton Fire in early 2025, you could hike from Pasadena up to Mount Lowe near Mt Wilson.
Just because your ego demands you create a National Park doesn't mean you should.
None dare call it cheating, but I drove part of the way to the highest point in Orange County.
About a year before the devastating Eaton Fire, I hiked this front range peak.
No, not that Grand Canyon. The one around here.
Mt. Baldy - highest point in L.A. County at 10,064' - is currently closed due to the Bridge Fire which, as you'll see in a later post, I saw happen from the summit of Baldy.
The Vital Link is a fun, short-but-steep trail in the Verdugo Mountains. It's 3.8 miles & 1700' of gain round trip so it's fairly steep.
I did this 11,611' peak in the southern Sierras with a micro influencer I'd met online.
While I later biked to the highest point in the City of Los Angeles, this time I just hiked it.
This was a fairly easy DPS peak near Lucerne Valley and Victorville.
Rising high above Burbank and Glendale are the perpetually snow-capped Verdugo Mountains...
Clingman's Dome (
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Clingman's Dome is just a walk along a concrete walkway, but you get several highpoints.