EISPIRATEN

There is some conflicting information about the origin of the Disappointment name. Though it appears to have come from the Wheeler survey in the 1870s. Thanks for the sleuthing about the survey party, @Sean ! I took the opportunity to revisit a couple of sources. Charles Pate wrote at some length a...

Do a soil analysis to see why nothing grows. Actually, there are several such "anomalies" in the San Gabriels. There's one in Devil's Canyon at the toe of the ridge to West Twin which I personally visited once in a moment of despair after a forced 20-mile brush thrash necessitated while t...

Thanks for getting this hike together, Sean! It was a little bit of hard work and a lot of fun! For what it's worth, the name "Rose" appears to be mainly associated with the first era of Switzer's when the camp was run by Commodore Perry Switzer with help from Rob Waterman from 1884 to aro...

I bet you wish you had done this in 2010. lol I did this a few times around 2013-2014 which is why I told Sean it wasn't so bad! ? Were the San Gabriels more active with people in the past then they are now? So strange! Some areas, like Switzer's and Mt. Lowe, were very busy because they had resort...

Thanks for the maintenance work, David! Nice to hear it's getting some attention. The trail is also known as Station Ridge Trail. It's been a while since I used it, so I'll have to pay a visit and check it out!

Wow, those are great! For #1 - Any waterfall experts in the house? Canyoneers? For #2 - Maybe near Kelly Camp or Ontario Peak looking northwest towards west Baldy and register ridge? For #3 - I agree it's lower altitude, maybe just a reinforced section of a high-use trail in the front range? Seems l...

Thanks for the great trip report, Sean. It almost feels like I went along for the trip as well-- Wait a minute, I did go along for the trip! So I wasn't hallucinating after all! Here are some pics: IMG_1153.JPG "Hey, Sean, I know a great way to go up Panorama Peak!" IMG_1156.JPG Sean: &quo...

Welcome! Come to think of it, there's something like 15 years' worth of tall tales, speculation, hearsay, rumors, dubious conjecture and a few odd, miscellaneous facts no sane person would care about lurking in these pages. Please join in with your own!

Thanks, Sean! Nice work on unearthing those articles. I couldn't find anything in the LATimes archive. I did find a few sad, tragic or oddball incidents that pop up in old articles though. Are the rules of this thread to only post something that happened on today's date in the past? So based on that...

I'm not sure when the Cliff Trail was built, but I think it was already in existence by this time. Great thread! So much to learn through these accounts. Not sure if anyone has a copy of Robinson handy to fact check this, but I believe the Cliff Trail was worked on by John T. Opid between 1917-1921...

I'd never heard of that Forks Dam project. It's kind of crazy the number of major infrastructure projects that were foiled by this canyon! Forks Dam, Bridge to Nowhere, Schoemaker Road, not to mention all of the mining history carved out of the canyon walls. I guess in flush times, optimism fuels th...

Wow. Somehow I missed this thread three years ago. Amazing old photos and detective work. Does your scrapbook have material on any of the front range camps of that era? I love seeing the reference to the "auto stage" to Camp Baldy. There was an Arroyo Seco auto stage and Mt. Wilson auto st...

Thank you for this! Wonderful video production as usual and nice sound mix! In addition to the suspenseful music, the sound of crunching twigs and pebbles sliding as you step across some particularly delicate spots just heightens the experience. The trail seems like a pretty major investment of labo...

This is one way to get a shot like that.
Here's a companion to your photo, but of San Jacinto and Palm Springs with a nice view of Snow Creek

Seems a bit smoky today - Wilson cam shows some smoke blowing in from the north around 9:00 a.m.-ish. Is something burning?

Who knows what evil lurks in the depths of tunnels? Brings back memories. Used to go to nighttime drum circle parties in the first tunnel - good vibes until the witchcraft/animal sacrifice folks started to show up and use the spot for their ceremonies as well. Cool spooky murals. Looks like the tagg...

@Elwood - Sorry, not Silver. @Sean - Right you are! - Let's call it the Washburn group, ridge defined by peaks 3650 to 4202 just west of Switzer's Camp and vicinity. Normally, it blends in as just another bump below Josephine, but the light and shadows that day brought it into clear focus behind th...

Does this count: 2008-03-09 somewhere near Mt. Lowe Campground 9_440c806489110797475ab8abe7e99b9e.jpg Last edited by HikeUp on 6:57 PM - Jul 28, 2021, edited 1 time in total. z @HikeUp - Not to go on a tangent, but I think you found a descendant of the long lost "camel bird," a distant co...

Love the music and the smiling hillbilly inserts! Ghosts of the canyon smiling at the situations we put ourselves into? Very artfully done, I really love how you include all the little details that catch the eye, salamanders crawling, fish swimming, textures of the rock, mysterious approaches throug...

The next should rightfully proceed to the winners, but @Sean asked about an unsolved image from last October:

Is it Hoyt seen from down Big Tujunga way?

Not Hoyt and not Big Tujunga but you are very close.

Sorry I disappeared for a bit - Dima gets this one, a few canyon bends above Oakwilde but closer to Oakwilde than Switzer's - extra credit if you can ID the abandoned picnic area just a few hundred yards upstream from this spot.

You're it!

Nice to think of cooler weather like this:

Off Mt. Lukens Rd. where the beekeeper teepee is and the mailbox - La Canada trail - cross town? comes out right there

Nice route, David! My guess is that most of us had our first direct encounter with the dreaded poodle after the Station Fire burn area reopened around 2011-2012 I think - It's funny that I had a similar rude awakening in the same general vicinity as the others did here - I walked valley forge trail ...

Nice hike and good way to start the new year! Looks like the direct approach to Triplet Rocks from the east will now be "doable" as well as Mermaids and other hard to reach destinations. Not sure if I'll have the time, opportunity and nerve to make it to those destinations. The shot to the...

I have a friend who thinks it would be cool to restore that old trail and open a new route to Rattlesnake. Thanks for the report! A bunch of years ago, I explored the switchbacks on the south wall of Bichota canyon. They're still there and could be cleared with a moderate amount of blood, sweat and...

Welcome, David. Those sound like some unforgettable adventures. I also like the idea of looking for adventure close to home - did you manage to include some of the old staircases on your way through silverlake and echo park? Natural history and urban archaeology. I had forgotten that the San Gabriel...

Sad to see the cabin ruins. Was it the curve fire that took those cabins out? Used to be well-kept cabins there. Seems like the trail has been pretty long gone for a while - I once hiked the overgrown road grade switchbacks on the south side of the canyon up to the ridge. The ridgetop seemed like an...

Dang - I guess I'm it again. What is the illuminated pointy peak near the middle that stands out against the shadow?

Mt Markham from near Muller Tunnel/Eaton Saddle area