We had yet to explore the area of the Angeles crest between Throop Peak on the east and Mt. Islip on the west, the interval being a south-and-west-trending ridge that includes Mt. Hawkins, elev. 8,850′. Really just a bump along the ridgeline, the peak’s position at the juncture of the ridge’s change of direction…
We’ve driven on Hwy 2 many times past the turnoff to the Grassy Hollow visitor center, but we’ve always had other places to get to and have never stopped in to check it out. With the grandbabies with us in Wrightwood for the second weekend in a row, we decided to pay Grassy Hollow…
We had intended to hike Mt. Williamson as the second of a two-day exploration of the area around Islip Saddle, but our dog, Frances, got sick the night of our Mt. Islip walk and we had to postpone the next day’s trip as a result. The intervening weekends have been full of events and…
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….
Having spent a rather lazy Saturday at the cabin, we decided to drive across the mountains on Hwy 2 and eat Father’s Day dinner with Dani at Carter’s restaurant in Pasadena, doing a hike somewhere along the way. Of the literally dozens of options open to us, one that had caught our eye on…
For a couple of weeks now, we had been talking about repeating our hike up Mt. Baden-Powell (9,399′), but adding a trip down the peak’s western ridgeline as well. We had also kicked around the idea of doing the hike in the reverse direction, from west to east. In either case, we’d need to…
At 8,505′, the highest point on Blue Ridge is Wright Mountain, named for the original developer of the Wrightwood community. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs the length of Blue Ridge, and we had hiked a short segment of the PCT on our way to Frost Peak a few weeks earlier. Today’s agenda called…
Our quads and glutes were a little sore following yesterday’s climb up Blue Ridge, so we were in need of something slightly less intense for today’s outing. We settled on Gobblers Knob, a 6,955′ bump on the eastern end of Blue Ridge near Circle Mountain, which would only involve about 3 roundtrip miles of…
The eastern San Gabriels had gotten some snow the previous weekend, but whatever stuck had virtually disappeared by mid-week, and we were anxious to start exploring the area with vigor. Having not done anything at altitude for weeks, we decided to find something that would help us acclimate while still being a good workout….
Having enjoyed the wildflowers so much at the Poppy Reserve last weekend, we were anxious to pay Wind Wolves a visit to see if any color was left up there – well, no such luck. We started up the east side of San Emigdio Canyon, taking the side trail up to Raven’s Landing for…