EISPIRATEN

Wow, have been reading about these plants today. They're very interesting, mostly native to California, and people are fond of them. Found a good video:

We hiked Middle Fork yesterday and it was quite beautiful. This was another car shuttle hike for us. We left one near the end of the pavement on Middle Fork Rd., then drove the other to Icehouse Saddle. At 6 it was already a total zoo there. The parking lot was full, masses of people all over. The h...

Coming down Middle Fork trail yesterday from Icehouse Saddle we saw a patch of about 12 of these on a shady hillside at around 6500'. There were none before or after that little section. They reminded me of the long red flower stalks we see on some yuccas these days so I wondered if they might be ne...

OK, we walked it yesterday, everything was fine, and Taco’s description sums it up pretty well. After leaving a car at the bottom of the chair lift we drove the second to there Lytle Creek Rd. and I parked about a mile beyond the end of the paved section, just past the shooting range. We started wal...

Edward, thanks for your reply. But you mention Timber and Telegraph, which aren't part of my route. Maybe you thought I planned to come up from Middle Fork Rd.? I'm seeing that the start point is about 4800' and the high point is just over 8000', near the notch. Here's the route I drew on AllTrails,...

What an entertaining post. Thanks for enduring that experience and writing about it, so I could enjoy it from my living room sofa in comfort.

Speaking of odd place names, the other day I noticed that if the High Country map is folded in a certain way, one sees this. It could be your new avatar. ?

I plan to hike this route with my wife and a friend this weekend. We'll take 2 cars, leave one at the bottom of the chair lift, park the second one just past the end of the pavement on Lytle Creek Road, walk up to the notch, then take the chair lift back to the first car. I haven't been able to find...

Thanks for the interesting trip report! Lately my buddy and I have been hiking the PCT west of the 15. Over the last few months we've walked most of it (in chunks) from Lake Hughes to east of Wrightwood, and might continue east through the area you hiked. Some comments about those sections (which pr...

That's an amazing intense ride. I bow to you. On Saturday my buddy and I hiked from Vincent Gap to Wrightwood on the PCT ( very nice section) and I saw that the gate at VG was still closed. I wonder how much longer it'll stay that way. The road is really in pretty good condition. Interesting that it...

RJM Mexican Grill, 8181 Sunland Blvd, Sun Valley. No other burrito compares. Cholada and I stopped there after Strawberry the other day. We were pretty hungry but I could only finish about half of this pollo carbon bad boy. If I ever hike to Burrito Peak I'll bring one with me. Their salsa bar is on...

I went back up to Strawberry yesterday with Cholada and my brother. It was a beautiful day, but the visibility was somewhat limited by low clouds. This time I brought strawberries, and strawberry ice cream packed with dry ice so we could have sundaes at the summit. During our ice cream break at the ...

You can file this under Nice try -- not! My hiking buddy and I tend to walk somewhat apart, often out of each others sight. When I added a whistle to my gear (on a small carabiner that clips to my belt) I got him one too. We got into the habit of doing 2 short chirps as a way to say Hey, all good, a...

FYI: heading home from the eastern Sierras today we stopped at Red Rock Canyon hoping to walk Nightmare Gulch, but found that it's closed until July 31 to protect a bird of prey nesting area.

No, just the tall metal stake that holds the triangular peak marker.

(And a box of random stuff left by previous visitors that I didn't look through — there might’ve been a steak knife inside it.)

But maybe I have misunderstood a cutting remark.

During my recent drives up and down ACH I kept noticing a big, pointy, distinctively shaped peak. I took a photo one day and asked Dima, who immediately recognized it as Strawberry. Kurt and I have been circumnavigating Angeles Forest, mostly hiking the edges of the range, and now we’re approaching ...

As of yesterday the western side is still gated about 1000 feet before Eagles Roost, as it has been for at least a month. The eastern side had been gated at Grassy Hollow, but that gate is open now and the closure is at Vincent Gap. I've seen and walked most of the pavement in between, and it's almo...

Thanks for posting that article. I've made many trips up there lately and the roads and the trails have gotten MUCH busier in the last couple of weeks. After yesterday's hike we pulled into Red Box to use the rest rooms and saw that SAR teams and emergency vehicles had taken over much of the parking...

A little off topic, but I'm always amazed at how some animals can travel long distances accurately, even in the dark, even to places they’ve never been to before. I came across a great New Yorker article called “Why Animals Don’t Get Lost" that explains part if it, describes some “supernavigato...

Dima, the incident was in May and I don't think a storm had come in. They sheltered in a crevasse the first night and then followed a stream down, which probably would have led to their death if not for the freaky coincidence after they became trapped. The woman was religious and prayed a lot throug...

Absolutely. They were dressed all wrong and hardly brought any water. From the comments he makes describing what happened the guy sounds very intelligent and logical but maybe we're so used to being safe and comfortable all the time, people are just unable to think about the "what if's." A...

Lately my wife and I have been watching survival stories on I Shouldn’t Be Alive . We used to catch occasional episodes on cable but that they’re all on Amazon we’ve been watching the ones we missed. In general they’re really well produced and realistic. One good episode we saw last week was Date Fr...

I think you're supposed to offer thru-hikers some weed, and then they tell you a funny story. Damn, I didn’t know that! You think some gummies would've been ok? For the next PCT segment we walked from San Francisquito Rd. to Lake Hughes Rd. We turned right at the road, then right again at Lake Eliz...

Kurt and have been continuing north through these hills so I thought I’d amend this thread. Our hikes have mainly just followed the PCT so there’s no breaking news, and I'll keep these entries short. But there are some great views and I enjoyed seeing the area, which has mostly been new to me. We co...

I've been reading about the Glendale woman who died near the Mt. Waterman trail recently. I haven't seen specifics about where her body was found or what happened. I was in that area about 10 days ago (didn't post about that hike) so I was especially sad to learn of this. If anyone knows more about ...

I hope to bring my MTB up to that section in the next week or two to give it a try. I want to get a better idea of the burn damage and see what hikes might be do-able around there. Maybe next Tuesday, to beat the new snow that’s forecast for Weds/Thurs. When we hiked to the glider last month the 2 w...

Like sex and pizza, it seems that hikes are rarely bad . This wasn’t bad, and the views were phenomenal, but it wasn’t what I expected. Kurt and I had enjoyed exploring the northwest corner of Angeles Forest over the last few weeks and the fire breaks we'd hiked around there, inspired by David R’s r...

After hiking from Mill Creek Summit to Three Points yesterday Kurt and I had a little time left, so we scouted the trailheads and highway to get more info. Here’s what I learned... First, the eastbound 2 was open to Cedar Springs. That place isn’t shown on the Harrison Map but it’s about halfway bet...

As part of our big San Gabriels loop my buddy and I plan to hike the PCT from Mill Creek Summit to Three Points this weekend. We've had 2 recent hikes to Mill Creek and I know all the trails are open there but I wasn't 100% sure about the Three Points side, so I drove up there with my wife today for...

(This will be a short entry. I wasn’t even sure this odd little route deserved a trip report, but Sean said I should go for it.) Kurt and I wrapped up our Magic Mountain hikes a few weeks ago and started to work our way east. We had to skip a big chunk east of the PCT and south of Ravenna, at least ...

Really enjoyed these posts! Amazing trip, fantastic report and photos.