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.
I came back for more of the Upper Cabin trail but this time I took a rougher route up. The route I took is here, but I did the loop portion in the reverse order.
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.
While waiting for Baldy to reopen, here are pics from the rather steep Register Ridge trail. It gains about 2500' in about 1.2 miles. The trail starts just after the metal register you see on the Ski Hut trail, and then it ends on the Devil's Backbone trail just below Mt Harwood. So, after climbing up the steep part, you still have about 700' of gain to get the Baldy summit.
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've hiked it a few times and I have to believe that I have better photos of it somewhere, but these will have to do for now.
On Feb 1, 2025, parts of the Angeles National Forest reopened after the devastating Eaton Fire. The next day I drove up the Angeles Crest Highway to Red Box and, aside from a faint smell of smoke in the air at Red Box and Mt Wilson Road being closed to vehicles, things were as they were before in that area.
Normally I'm all over things volcanic, but this national monument didn't live up to expectations.
The NPS describes it as a "vast ocean of lava flows" but the parts of it I saw weren't vast. A rangerette wouldn't give me a permit for the lava tubes trail because I couldn't account for the whereabouts of my boots. I might have worn them into another cave in the past and, to avoid White Nose syndrome you aren't supposed to track between caves. At least El Malpais National Monument has hydrogen peroxide that you can soak your boots in, but Craters didn't.
I kicked off my Great Summer Road Trip 2024 Extravaganza by hiking the River Trail to Thousand Island Lake in the Sierra Nevadas. It's a pack trail so it has an even grade, it's fairly smooth, but there are also mule artifacts to be dodged.
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".
While I definitely proceeded cautiously since I was hiking solo in grizzly country, the hike itself was a lot closer to the "friendly" variety once I figured out the correct route. There's some scrambling, but not Class 3/4 unless you want it.
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. Due to the wildfires I needed somewhere to go and that seemed like the best option. I just drove up there and, because I'd had Oat Mountain on my list, I looked that up and went to the trailhead.
No, the title isn't a law firm: it's five peaks near Mt Wilson that I biked and hiked.
I started at Red Box and biked up the Mt. Wilson Road. Just after the 0.3 mile marker, I arrived at the Bill Reilly trailhead (it's somewhat easy to miss). That's where the Mt Disappointment Road starts. It's asphalt and closed to vehicles.
Just before the 2.0 mile marker and a cistern, there's a use trail for Mt. Deception (5,796'). I locked the bike here and started hiking. The beginning of the use trail is steep and loose, but it's a short trip to the summit. I didn't see a benchmark.