EISPIRATEN

Lots of clouds, but nothing got close to a real thunderhead.

We hiked Baldy up the Ski Hut trail and down the Devil's Backbone yesterday. We passed 6 or 8 two person crews each carrying roofing panels to the Ski Hut. The plywood is now covered with something black (tar paper?). It was unusually humid, but that made for a lot of clouds. Here is picture of Mt. ...

I understand that the dead trees are from a fire maybe 20 years ago. I don't know the exact date, but someone here probably does. It shows how long it takes the forest to recover when old growth trees burn. I agree that the landscape is surreal. Nice report!

Go a little wider on that shot and you get Bighorn, Etiwanda, and Cucamonga.

If they don't have to be landscapes, here is an Icehouse Canyon columbine.

We hiked Telegraph via Icehouse Canyon on Saturday. Round trip is 12.2 miles with about 4625 feet of elevation gain. I estimated from Topo! maps that the Timber-Telegraph saddle adds around 300 feet each way to the altitude difference. Here is Baldy from Telegraph's summit. https://eispiraten.com/im...

The bugs have been a nuisance in Icehouse for the last few weeks. I just walk fast and pray for a breeze to blow them away. Bug nets work, but they are hot and interfere with vision. I have never tried Deet or anything like that.

Hikin_Jim - Thanks for the correction. It is WEST!

Hikin_Jim - Nice trip report. I'm glad to learn that the springs are drinkable. Funyan005 - Walk west across the camp away from the trail. Look for a grassy area. One of the springs is there. Near the top of Cucamonga, you get a nice view of the Ontario ridgeline with all the false summits. https://...

My wife and I must have passed you on the trail. We dayhiked Cucamonga on the Fourth. We were on the trail from 8AM to 5PM. We saw nobody on the way up, but passed about a dozen backpackers on the way down. Nice report. Here is a pano looking east. https://eispiraten.com/images-archived/richardk.smu...

We have been drinking from Columbine for years without any bad effect. The water there comes directly out of granite. However, the pipe does not look very inviting and, by refilling at Columbine going up and coming down, we didn't need the water anyway. If I were going to drink from the pipe, I thin...

Hi Jim, I think you got points A and B reversed on your map. The picture was taken at the map's point B maybe 200 or 300 feet west of the bend in the trail at Kelly's. If you walk across the camp westerly away from the trail, you will see a grassy area. A faint use trail leads to the pipe. I have no...

The $2 billion a week being wasted on the Iraq boondoggle would buy a lot of Adventure Passes.

We hiked Ontario yesterday. The heat was not bad until 1:00PM, but we were on the descent by then. We could see the SAR copter orbiting the Ski Hut. The Kelly Camp Spring was flowing, but low. Here is a picture: https://eispiraten.com/images-archived/richardk.smugmug.com/photos/317680206_pysEN-XL.jpg

next time im going down the backbone..going down the ski hut trail
was harder than going up.

Congrats on making the summit!! You are right. The Ski Hut trail downhill is rough on the knees. We always hike down the backbone. Take $8 for the ski lift and ride it down to the parking lot.

We hiked Icehouse Canyon via the Chapman Trail Saturday. You can see part of the burn area from the Bear Flat fire.

I found a couple of 10 year old trip reports at this link:

http://tchester.org/sgm/links/100.html

It sounds like you need a 4WD vehicle to get close to the trailhead.

Mt. Baldy ski lifts sent out this message: Hot. Hot. Hot. It's really cooking at Baldy! For those of you who have not heard about the fires going on in Baldy. Rest assured we are all fine. No structures were lost.Thanks to those wonderful firefighters.There are only a few smoldering fires & they...

Many thanks to Travis for this board. Best Wishes for the future!

Here is a good discussion about GPS altitude accuracy:

http://gpsinformation.net/main/altitude.htm

I think that the altitude accuracy of GPS receivers is inherent in the system. Altitude accuracy is going to be 1.5 times horizontal no matter which receiver you use.

The Icehouse Canyon outhouse was tagged back in the summer, although only the eastside. The Forest Service (or somebody) painted over it very quickly.

I guess Crystal Cove was spooked by the Santa Ana winds forecast which never seemed to materialize. We pulled up to the park entrance to find it gated shut. Fortunately, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park was open.

I spoke with the ranger's office at Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach. They have reopened. We do an 8 mile loop around the park perimeter. Note that is does cost $10 to park.

Thanks for your efforts!! Now, if it would only rain, we could actually hike the San Gabriels.

Betty Goat is an obvious troll.

Chino Hills State Park is closed.
Crystal Cove State Park is closed.
Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is closed.
Riley Wilderness Park is closed.

It looks like a weekend hiking the stair master.

Trolls have been a problem on hiking message boards starting several years ago with the Mt. Whitney board. It got so bad there that the board shut down for several months. The moderators have no choice but constant vigilance. They must read every post every day and delete messages and accounts at th...

I have been told by the Visitor Center rangers that they like to open at 7AM in the summer to accomodate the early hikers. In winter, they go to the 8AM opening time. Closing is at 3:30 summer and 4:30 winter. The main thing is, if you park a vehicle inside their gate, be sure to know the closing ti...

I have never seen a register or benchmark on Cucamonga either. We were up there last in August.

Cedar Glen is a beautiful spot. It is primitive camping - no facilities. If you wanted to access the ridge to Thunder, my recollection is that you would be doing some bushwacking and boulder scrambling. burtw posted this account on the Mt. Whitney board last May: Another interesting route in the Ice...