EISPIRATEN

The site now says NOT appropriate. It was a typo!

They're just not good at computers. The updated link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/angeles/ale ... d-march-20

Oh yeah. I walked around with the horizonator. This is a view to the N from above "the Pothole". Slide Mountain is the big bump in the background

What's that flat area in the middle of your photo?

It is (was?) winter! The last few years we did this:


2023
2024
2025


This was a shit snow year, but we still figured something out. Wes, Deb and I met Taco at Manker flat. Once again, he biked up from the city! Hiked up towards the bowl. It is looking tragic:

https://gal.secretsauce.net ...

Pop quiz! How did they get that truck to the Big Bell site? There aren't any remotely driveable roads anywhere near it. I think I know the answer


I have a couple ideas but I'm scared to say.

1. They took the truck apart completely then reassembled it at the mine.
2. Trestle
3. Offroad all ...

Did you go do it? How was it?

Welcome back! Taco and I have been going up to Baldy at night during a full moon every year for a bit now. It was looking like the snow coverage would make us skip this year, but now it looks like we can do it, maybe. Looking forward to that. You just went up the back side of San G? Care to post a ...

Pop quiz! How did they get that truck to the Big Bell site? There aren't any remotely driveable roads anywhere near it. I think I know the answer

We spent the first day of the 2026 Valentine's day trip mostly riding around aimlessly . On the second day, we followed a vague plan I threw together before we left. The map showed two abandoned mining areas in the Funeral Mountains near each other: Chloride City and the Keane Wonder mine . One is ...

Valentine's day just happened, so I went to Death Valley with my Valentine. Taco and I had some desert plans that fell through, and rain was forecast, so we decided to join the festivities at SwaneyFest on Sat night, and do a few mostly-unplanned MTB day rides.

We arrived at Slabby Acres on Sat ...

Better luck next time. And keep these coming!

Ride a bike; it'll be nice.

Damn, that's the part of 39 that google maps says exists. What will those people do now?

GoalHiking wrote: Thu Feb 05, 2026 11:00 am If anyone's interested in doing Villager on Feb 14, please let me know. Moderate pace, starting around 7am or so.

Maaaaybe. I think I'm doing something that weekend already. But if not, I'll let you know. Do write a TR in any case!

Don't hold your breath on Barley Flat Trail - upper Big T to Barley Flat route. We're estimating 2027 at the earliest for tread completion. It's a major mess and severely overgrown. But we are working on it.


I'm not holding my breath. Thank you very much for taking this on. Hopefully I'll join ...

Wow. So little snow. I guess it has been far too warm?

I dunno. But this dude has been there, before the new govt road from Mt wilson was completed (Sun, Sep 13, 1908 ·Page 82):
The_Los_Angeles_Times_1908_09_13_82.jpg

Then the new govt road was built, and there was much rejoicing (Thursday, August 23, 1928)
Pasadena_Star_News_1928_08_23_25.jpg

In ...

Yeah, I know That's why I wanted to see the Barley Flats truck trail. Cleaning that up will be the obvious next thing to do, but I bet it will be less work than fixing either of the trails.

Oh interesting. The modern day Shorcut saddle and pass and road sit E of Barley flat, but maybe that's not the original routing. Thanks for the info

Thanks for the link. MS teams makes me angry, so I think I'll sit this one out. If anybody attends, post an update here!

Anticipating some future trail restoration efforts, I'm thinking of potential loops, and of trails that I wish were usable. One of these is the old powerline road from Red Box to Barley Flats . I've never been on it, but heard that it is quite abandoned. Today I saw it. It's abandoned indeed, but ...

The springs are delightful. The water levels in the creek are high, so the pools are warm only up near the source. Also means the place is hard to get to, and isn't overrun. Whatever naked people are there have put in the work! The gate is closed at Tar Creek, and we biked the 2.5 miles each way to ...

We did the same trip just now. The trail received some maintenance, and is now clear all the way to the springs. Thank you, trail builders! There's a lot of erosion and the water levels are very high. Lots of creek crossings in Alder Creek. The two crossings of the Sespe are deep and fast. The hot ...

Is "finders keepers" a valid legal principle?

What? Seriously? Is that real? On ach?

Regarding the trout: are they still there? Old newspapers have countless articles about people going to the upper areas of the East Fork and "catching the limit" within a few minutes. This thread says that humans fucked this up.

Was out at Mt-Lowe-ish today. The sun mid-day makes the barges near the port stand out:
And the following day you could clearly see Santa Barbara island and San Nicolas island, behind and to the right 105 miles away!

Thanks for the link! One of the photo's captions says "1997". Have you really been running that group for that long? I had no idea.

HikeUp wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 10:28 pm

dima wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 10:03 pm The new map shows Mt Lowe rd as the border. What does that mean about Mt Lowe Rd?

I would interpret it as the road is open. Same as mt. Wilson trail is open.

Is that what you're asking?

That's what I was asking. Thanks.