Eric and I did the Mt. Wilson Trail today. It was a really nice day -- calm, T-shirt weather the whole time -- temperatures in the 50s to 70s -- and clear skies. We started at 1:30, got to the gazebo at 3:45, and were back at 5:45. From the top we could see Catalina and San Clemente islands pretty clearly. In fact, we could even see San Nicholas (not Saint Nicholas -- we saw him a couple of weeks ago). In the other directions, San Jacinto and San Gorgonio were clearly visible in addition to the usual Baldy peaks.
All in all, it was a poor day for both of us to forget cameras. However, we did.
Note added later -- San Nicholas Island is 100 miles from Mt. Wilson. Santa Barbara Island is much smaller but only 75 miles away in generally the same direction. There was a magical day on Strawberry Peak a few years back when we saw both of them clearly. We saw one or the other today.
) you had a picture of the island you could easily pick out which one it was by drawing a straight line on google earth or whatever. From Gleason today I was clearly able to see Santa Barbara Island and thought I could see something in the vicinity of San Nicholas but it could have easily been a random dark area on the horizon. I confirmed what I saw by drawing a straight line from Gleason to each of the islands - Santa Barbara was slightly to the left of Condor Jr. and Nicholas was slightly to the right of Condor Jr. San Clemente was hidden by Catalina from Gleason but is not from Wilson and further east.
