No peak, however small, is spared my peakbagging efforts.
So, when I was driving by the Whittier area, I decided to hike to its eponymous hill. It's just 1,260' and it's capped with a water tower. And, it's not only decorated with antennae but every inch is covered with graffiti. Nonetheless, it was a nice hike in an interesting area and I'll probably be back. While I followed a different, longer trail, the specific route I took is here.
"I wouldn't say I'm specifically a hero for what I did. The real heroes do what I did and drive a Prius."
In March I drove out to Joshua Tree to do a DPS peak, Eagle Mountain. I turned around shy of the summit due to timing.
So, I decided to try it again and this time I got an earlier start. Things were going well until they took quite a turn for the worse.
It doesn't go to a peak, but this is one of the top hikes in Glacier National Park.
The Grinnell Glacier trail leaves from the Many Glacier resort and is flat for a couple miles before finally gaining some elevation. While the initial part goes around a lake and is attractive, you can also cut off some distance if you have a boat reservation.
I was hiking up Mt. Baldy when a wildfire started.
This was the Vista Fire of July 2024. I was on the Ski Hut trail and as you can see from the first photo there was the possibility that the fire would come over the ridge. So, rather than risk getting caught in its path, I continued to the summit.
Once I was on the summit I could see that they were working on the fire and trying to keep it on the other side of the ridge. Also, the wind was blowing towards the fire, not me.
No, not that Grand Canyon. The one around here.
What few know is there's a Grand Canyon in the mountains north of Pasadena, California. That's because there's no trail there and you need to occasionally slide on your rear due to steep dirt slopes. I also made it extra interesting by, despite pangs of thalassophobia, going through a bit of a pool.
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.
About a year before the devastating Eaton Fire, I hiked this front range peak.
You won't be able to hike to it for probably several years, but for future reference there are at least three different routes to the peak. The one I took was the Old Mt Wilson Trail up Little Santa Anita Canyon. Between First Water and Orchard Camp there's a trail that starts through a narrow canyon but it soon goes through clearer areas. While it's steep, when I did it it was not loose: the way back was a fast descent.
This was a hike with a large Meetup group near the Salton Sea. There were a few spots of fairly easy scrambling.
Easy, that is, aside from the two parts where I needed to crawl due to low rocks. While long pants weren't really necessary, kneepads would have been a nice accessory.
The group came back on the AllTrails route (link) but went up a parallel trail.
"Mt Bliss" has the sound of some Alaskan 17er, or maybe a neighbor of Mt Vinson. Set your expectations a lot lower...
In fact, it's a meh peak in the front range of the San Gabriels and it's just 3,720' or so. The hike to it is along a fireroad with zero shade. OTOH, it has mostly good sight lines so you'd probably see animals heading your way. And, it is or was on the LPC ("Lower Peaks Committee") list. There's a lot on its fire history etc here.
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.