Jane stayed at the cabin while Chris took Pedro and Cody and Carter Ammeraal on the 4-mile roundtrip hike out to Bighorn Mine. Located high in Mine Gulch on the southeast flank of Mt. Baden-Powell, the gold mine was one of the most productive in the San Gabriels, producing into the 1940’s before watering…
The Grassy Hollow Visitor Center was having a presentation on snakes and other reptiles, so Chris and Pedro took Jude and Ollie on a short hike down the PCT west of the facility prior to attending the lecture. The trail follows the contours along the north side of Blue Ridge, gaining and losing the…
We first hiked up the PCT to Mt. Baden-Powell more than a year-and-a-half ago – it was a crisp November day then, and those memories of a tough hike in cool weather were beckoning us to repeat the journey, albeit on a warm Fourth of July Saturday. Baden-Powell’s northeast slope is one of the…
We had planned to hike Waterman Mountain today, but Jane realized she hadn’t brought any socks when we were about halfway to the trailhead. By the time we got back to the cabin, it was in the 80s in Wrightwood and we figured we should do something a little closer to home. We had…
One stretch of the PCT near Wrightwood we had yet to fully explore is the 5-mile section between Guffy Campground and Inspiration Point – we visited some of the area when hiking Frost Peak last year but thought the full out-and-back would make for a nice longish walk that was close enough to home. Plus,…
We’re not sure whose idea it was to celebrate Chelsea’s birthday with a family hike, but we rose early Saturday morning to make the 2-hour drive up to the Trail of 100 Giants, one of the southernmost groves of giant sequoias, near Johnsondale. We had first visited this little preserve several years ago with…
We could have booked our Palm Desert trip several weeks earlier, but we chose to do it relatively late because we wanted to hike San Jacinto Peak, and we were worried that the higher mountains would still be snowy earlier in the season. Day 3 of our stay in the desert had us rushing…
Day 2 of our Palm Desert trip found us trying to figure out where to hike without killing ourselves in the heat. We had talked about a 7-mile out-and-back to Murray Hill above Palm Springs, but with the forecast in the 100s we knew we’d have to be on the trail before sunrise, and…
Part II of our Indian Canyons adventure led up Andreas Canyon and back, a short mile-long excursion along a perennial creek that was flowing nicely. Similar to Palm Canyon, there was a picnic area at the mouth of the canyon, and we quickly passed through it as we made our way west up the…
Months ago, we had made some reservations at a golf resort in Palm Desert through an email advertisement, thinking we’d enjoy some nice spring weather and a chance to hike in the desert. As the dates approached, however, it looked more like the area was going to be hot, hot, and hot during our three…