EISPIRATEN

Yessir. You're it!

Alright. Where am I?

I just got a new batch of eispiraten stickers! Who wants some? PM me with your address, and I'll send some your way. Or if you want to be really cool, you can send me a pre-addressed envelope (PM me for my address). These are the standard design, about 4" by 3" on vinyl. So they survive ou...

Gabrielino just above Oakwilde. Looking W.

Or West of there

Elwood wrote: ↑Pinyon Ridge: 4N56

Can't be. They're facing North-ish, looking at Josephine, Strawberry and Lawlor and such. Probably just above Altadena somewhere? Just past the Meadows?

So, we were going to go see the bristlecone groves on the way back, but the climb took way longer than expected, so we didn't actually go do the normal tourist thing. Are the trails in the groves worth doing?

Taco and I like the mountains, and we like riding bikes. So yesterday we took a trip that ticked both of these boxes: we rode our bikes up to the top of White Mountain Peak. This is the 3rd-highest peak in the state: 14.2k ft tall. And there's a dirt road that runs to the peak, making riding up poss...

Oh! I guess I haven't done that chunk of the PCH either! I biked most of the way up Pinos when we did the Tour de Los Padres. And I've been all the way on top a few times in a car. It's a cool area. There's a nice trail between Pinos and Cerro Noroeste. No bikes, I think.

Sweet! That's a fun area. I've done all that except Lockwood Valley rd between Cuddy Valley rd and hwy 33. Don't know how to feel about the ridge route being paved, but I guess nobody asked me. Where's that missile thing?

Thank you, Chrome, for making sure that an Elwood impersonator can't give us faked photos of the crowds in Utah. We could be misled!

Awesome! Thanks for the photos. I keep meaning to go over there, but haven't gotten around to it. This is a good reminder.

Oh hey! Good to see you comment! I didn't realize you already posted here a few times. Thanks for all the trail work. This route wouldn't be remotely possible without all your efforts. How bad was the old road when you started? Did you need to start clearing the brush all the way at the bottom gate ...

Yeah. The terrain looks super pretty, but what's going on in that canyon? Is it always like that? How far is everybody walking, and what's at the end?

What is he?

I've never once bothered to actually get this permit (like last week!) But that whole area is so overrun now (allegedly), that maybe some enforcement isn't the worst idea.

Today, the road from Cucamonga Canyon to Calamity ridge (opposite the direction you came from) is mostly clear. Past the ridge, towards Deer Canyon (what you walked on), it's rough; I didn't walk that part. The photo above shows a bit of that section between Deer Canyon and Calamity ridge.

Hey, Tekewin! If you want to come back to Calamity Peak, it's now super easy. I was wondering, when yall went over there, how was the road from Deer canyon to the ridge? It was painful-enough this time that I really didn't want to mess with it. A part of that section, viewed from above: https://gal....

Have you actually tried to go out and climb something you found this way? Are you able to eyeball the rock and tell if it's going to be solid or not?

I left a note in the register box, so maybe the trailbuilder(s) will comment here. It'll be a lot of work to clear out the brush past Greater Calamity, but they seem determined, and did a ton of work already. If they want to get it done, it'll get done. Hodi has been absolutely everywhere. He signed...

Thanks for the report. I need to finally go check out that trail sometime.

Those are snow plants! They're awesome. They're plants, but don't have chlorophyll and do not photosynthesize. Instead they're parasitic with the trees they live under. Kinda like mushrooms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcodes

For a while I've been wanting to summit Cucamonga Peak from the South. It's very prominent-looking when viewed from the city, and the terrain looks challenging when viewed from the top. People rarely come up that way, and I gave it a shot yesterday. Looking at the topos and the aerials, there's a pr...

Yeah, it's not right. There're lots of such "populated places" in their database. I'm more annoyed at the unclear citation, which makes it impossible to tell where the name came from. For what it's worth, I looked around in the newspapers, and found nothing significant. But I did learn tha...

So I now know where Google got it: from the USGS. Their "place names" database lists it:

https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=138: ... n%20Corner

It doesn't say much though.

Where are you seeing this? Is this google's secret data, or something?

Did yall bring the scopes? One of them is in an ammo box; does it live there?

Cryptic Two quick questions:

1. It sounds like you didn't get to the cave. Is that right? Have you seen photos of the art? Is it worth visiting?

2. Can I get a bit more detailed water report? Was there water anywhere along the route?

I just discovered that the 1995 USGS Topos have fun names for all sorts of places in these mountains, and I will now use those names whenever possible. This trip started at "Hoot Owl Flats", and I walked by the "Tecolote Plantation" on the way back. "Tecolote" is Spanis...

I'm eyeing a back way up Rattlesnake. Checked out Burrito (point 2510) the last time as a part of that, and came back today to try to do the whole thing. I was thinking about it, and decided that starting the ridge with Burrito just wasn't obscure enough. So I thought: hey, let's go through Buel's t...