In Wrightwood again for the weekend, we decided to try and do two hikes on opposite sides of Islip Saddle, a point 30 minutes west of Wrightwood at which Hwy 2 crosses the Angeles Crest and the PCT west of the Mt. Baden-Powell area. East of the saddle lies its namesake, Mt. Islip, elev. 8,250′ (Islip is pronounced “eye-slip”), reached via the PCT eastbound, and west of the saddle is Mt. Williamson, elev. 8,244′, accessed via the PCT westbound. The HPS guide cites the Islip hike at 6-1/2 roundtrip miles while Williamson is only 5 – we figured we’d choose whichever peak when we got to the trailheads. We could see a pretty solid cloud cover to the south as we drove through the mountains and thought that might make for some cool pictures, deciding that Mt. Islip would be today’s destination since it offers more open views to the south, and we arrived at Islip Saddle about 11:30am. As we prepared to leave the parking area, a couple of young men came down the trail, one of whom was in running tights and carrying a very small pack – we found out from other hikers we met later that this fellow is attempting to break the world record for a PCT thru-hike, and that he is typically covering about 43 miles a day. Our goal was much less ambitious, and we proceeded east up the trail, first through a handful of switchbacks before circling around a large brushy meadow on the northwest shoulder of Mt. Islip. The trail was initially a bit steeper than we had expected, gaining about 800′ in its first mile – however, after crossing a forest service access road, the trail leveled out considerably and the walking became an effortless stroll in the woods. As we completed our second mile, we caught up with a group of dads and young kids, each burdened with a full pack for a weekend stay at Little Jimmy Campground, a walk-in facility just ahead – within five minutes of passing the group, we arrived at the campground, popular among PCTers with its level campsites and reliable water nearby at Little Jimmy Spring. Continuing east, we passed a side trail to the spring and began climbing more directly to Windy Gap, a low saddle on the crest between Mts. Islip on the west and Hawkins to the east – while the PCT continues eastward up the ridgeline, another trail drops into the drainage to the south, a pretty bowl containing Crystal Lake, the only naturally-occurring lake in the San Gabriels. The gap lived up to its name, with a stiff breeze blowing that cooled us off on this warm day. After a snapping a couple of photos, we turned west and headed up the signed Mt. Islip trail, a narrow path that climbed sharply at first but leveled out after a pair of switchbacks, following the gentle ridgeline westward. Mt. Islip’s conical profile could be seen ahead of us, and the trail shifted to the south side of the ridge as we neared the base of the summit bump. The Crystal Lake basin and much of the surrounding ridges burned in the Curve Fire of 2002, and we had a full panorama of the fire’s damage in this area – we’ve heard that it takes some 75 years for forests here to fully recover, a figure that seems probable given the still-denuded slopes more than a decade after the fire. We passed through large fields of low buckthorn and manzanita, eventually reaching a switchback that doubled us back eastward to the summit itself. There was a fire lookout here for many years, and the foundations of the lookout remain, as do the stone walls of a storage building built just off the north side of the summit. The 360-degree views were amazing, although the southern cloud cover we had been expecting had mostly burned off to reveal the perennial layer of smog over the Inland Empire instead. The mountains, however, were displayed all round in stunning clarity – Twin Peaks and Waterman Mountain to the southwest, the Williamson group immediately to the west across Islip Saddle, and Throop Peak to the east. To the southeast was Hawkins Ridge, consisting of four peaks – Mount Hawkins, Sadie Hawkins, Middle Hawkins, and South Hawkins from north to south (we understand these peaks were all named nearly a century ago after a popular waitress at a restaurant near Crystal Lake, and the HPS guide notes that “she must have been quite a gal” – indeed). We spent about 30 minutes at the summit taking in the views before retracing our steps back down the ridge to Windy Gap. On our way west, we took the side trip to Little Jimmy Spring where we again met the backpacking dads and kids filling up their water bottles. The walk back to the trailhead was very pleasant and passed quickly, and we made it back to the Jeep by 3:30pm. The GPS logged the trip at 7.25 miles, so a little longer than planned – a very nice hike, though this time of year it’s advisable to get an earlier start to beat the heat.

Update: The young runner we encountered in the Islip Saddle parking lot is Joe McConaughy, age 23 – we found his web page later that evening and have followed his progress in the weeks since. On August 10, 2014, Joe completed the PCT in 53 days, 6 hours, and 37 minutes, shattering the previous record time by more than 6 days. Running to honor the memory of his two-year-old cousin who died from cancer and to raise money for cancer research, Joe averaged about 55 miles per day – read more about him, his run, and his mission at www.runforcolin.com…