EISPIRATEN

I was rudely informed via windshield flyer that 'This is now law!' when I returned from a hike up Trail Cyn in Tujunga. There was a ranger sitting in a vehicle at the trailhead, seemed to be there watching people retrieve the flyers. I do agree about the rudeness of the implementation. I got a tick...

The USGS web site is selling annual passes again now, so I went ahead and ordered one. I was at Crystal Lake on Sunday (total madhouse on the road and in the area around the cafe), and the cafe was selling day passes. So it looks like things are back to the status quo ante, at least in theory. Not s...

Adventure passes are excellent public policy. They pay for services I want, like having someone clean the bathrooms at the trailhead. They're a wonderful model of how to run government, and we should adopt that model more widely for other services. The model makes sense for a service that (a) is onl...

About a month ago I tried to buy an America the Beautiful pass on the USGS web site, and they had a message up saying that adventure passes were not being sold and not required because the services that that revenue paid for were not being provided during the covid quarantines. The USGS web site say...

I did Dana from the western side about 40 years ago with my father. My recollection is that at the lower elevations, the watershed on that side of the range was extremely lush and beautiful. Summit day was my first time being in the alpine zone, and I remember being really impressed by how desolate ...

OMG, cutest thing ever! Bird behavior is really interesting. I wish I understood more about what I was seeing a lot of the time. I saw a couple of Clark's nutcrackers last month near San Bernardino Peak, and they were interacting in some complicated way -- I couldn't tell if what I was seeing was fi...

@ReFreshing : Which ridge do you refer to as Bastard Ridge?

Great suggestion, HikeUp. I had totally forgotten that that forum existed, or that I had an account already.

Cross-posted: http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic. ... e96ac284fe

People refer to a certain junction near San Jacinto Peak as Annie's Junction. This is the junction about a mile north of Saddle Junction, where the Wellman Trail splits off from the PCT.

Does anyone know who Annie was or why it's called that? Was she some colorful or beloved local character?

It seems unpredictable how long the poodle dog will last after a fire. After the station fire it was extremely thick (and beautiful) along ACH over on the north-facing slopes of the Wilson ridge, and then that went away fairly fast. But over on Strawberry Peak, it really seemed to linger for year af...

@JerryN: Good to know, thanks. I'm usually going up there as a run, so I'm in shorts. I guess I'll just have to hope that the trail maintenance volunteers get up there between now and next winter and hit that evil weed with round-up, flamethrowers, plutonium, howitzers, or whatever it takes.

I like going up the main Wilson trail but then cutting up the south-east side of Jones Peak (not the connector, but the route that starts below the dam). There used to be only a minor use trail there, but Charlie Bell has made a little side loop that goes half-way up Jones. Then you can continue up ...

I went back again for another attempt at the run, 2 weeks after the earlier TR. Much more successful this time with less snow. Wellman Cienaga was running. It took me just under 4 hours to get to the point where I turned around, at the north end of the giant switchback east of San J. Could have prob...

Nice trips! Where do you get recent aerial imagery? Caltopo has it available as an overlay. Here's one that shows the area around Tahquitz: https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=33.7507 ... tinel_tc-0 They have some kind of rationing or throttling system in place, so if you try to access the satellite im...

I went up to Idyllwild Friday to attempt jogging up to San J and back from the South Ridge trailhead. I had fun, but didn't actually get that far because of snow, despite bringing microspikes. The trail north of the lookout tower was covered with snow, and I didn't feel safe going that way, so I scr...

There are frequently days with nobody assigned to work on the ground in the forest, and the days there are it's often just one or two to empty garbage bins and clean restrooms. I, for one, am very happy to have clean restrooms at trailheads, and garbage cans that aren't overflowing. Trailheads are ...

The toll road is covered by the closure, isn't it? Otherwise one could legally go up Bailey Cyn and then all the way to the block-house. Yes any trails emanating from the cities of LA County are closed. In addition the mayor has asked people to stay local so unless you live in the neighborhood you ...

The toll road is covered by the closure, isn't it? Otherwise one could legally go up Bailey Cyn and then all the way to the block-house.

The only times I've been to Big Tujunga Canyon were to do Strawberry Peak, but both times there was a ton of poodle dog bush. I'm really sensitized to that stuff now and really don't want to go near it. I don't know how long it took/will take to go away after the fire. The most recent time I was the...

Racking my brains for quality trails in the San Gabriels that aren't closed. It looks like Bailey Canyon is a legal way to access the front range and continue as far up as the ridge where it joins the old road. Iron Mountain is legal. I've always been interested in doing Baldy from Lytle Creek, but ...

Did Baldy today via the bowl with a couple of friends. We started up trail at 6 am, which worked well, because morning snow conditions in the bowl were extremely firm and easy for climbing. We went up the south-facing slope on climber's right side of the bowl. There was only one good ribbon of snow ...

I went up the main Wilson trail again on Jan. 8. The snow had completely melted out except for a very short section 50 feet below the top. That section had a good boot track and wasn't too hard to get through with running shoes. Three volunteers were using chainsaws to clear some of the fallen trees...

dima wrote: ↑How nice was it up there? Crowded?

It was a weekday, and the last mile of the road was closed, so we had the mountain almost to ourselves. Saw one other person. It was a beautiful, pleasant day.

Went up Vivian Creek today (Fri, Jan 3) with a friend. Snowshoes were necessary. Uphill progress was slow because of soft snow conditions, so we only got to High Creek before our noon turn-around time. The last mile of the road was closed, so we had to go back down the road to look for legal parking.

A friend and I are planning to do San Gorgonio this Friday, either from Vivian Creek or from South Fork via the chutes on the north side of the peak. Anyone have any info on conditions that might influence us on route selection? Either way I assume we'll need snowshoes, ice ax, and crampons. Looks l...

Are microspikes good enough for that trail or crampons necessary? I was doing it as a run and was just wearing shorts and a shirt and running shoes. That's why I turned around. Even in winters where we got a lot of snow on the road section and higher parts of the Wilson trail, I've never experience...

I went up the main Wilson trail today. Patches of snow started about half a mile below the bench, and above the bench it became more snow than dirt. (The section above the bench is north-facing.) I turned around at that point because I wasn't properly equipped for those conditions. There are also lo...

The trails in that area are maintained by volunteers working through the Sierra Madre Community Foundation, http://www.sierramadrefoundation.org . The foundation has a special fund, the Fletcher Fund, for trail maintenance. Neither the city of Sierra Madre nor the Forest Service provides any supplie...

Anyone know if there is snow on Wilson at the higher elevations right now? It's been overcast, so I haven't been able to get a good view from my house.

davidwiese wrote:
Sure thing, go ahead.

Cool, I added the photos to the article. Thanks!