Echo Mountain & Inspiration Point: 03-09-2008

[HikeUp]

What the heck - I need an excuse to post a pic of a great dog. A friend and I hiked up to Echo Mt. and Inspiration Point from Lake Ave. The Castle Canyon Trail is in great shape except for 2 or 3 spots where trees have fallen across plus 1 switchback is washed out. The trail has been in this condition at least since last December.

Met a couple of hikers and their dog 'Shady' (spelling?)...


It's amazing how much energy some dogs have - they run ahead a few hundred yards then run back to the owner and repeat this the entire way up. So basically they climb the route twice...and make the owner carry its water and food! Heh.

Also met a couple of guys from Orange County that were new to hiking in the area and on a whim decided to head over to Mt. Wilson after reaching Inspiration Point. We gave them a couple liters of water that we didn't need because they hardly had any.

[simonov]

You never need an excuse to post dog pictures.



Now that it's getting warmer, how crowded is that trail getting?

[HikeUp]

Now that it's getting warmer, how crowded is that trail getting?

We got to Inspiration Point about 9:45a and no one else was up there and we had seen maybe 2 others above Echo Mt. When we left about 10:45a to go down Castle Canyon trail, there were about 10 people there and we saw another 10 or so before reaching Echo Mt. Below Echo Mt. there were about 100 (one hundred) people heading up and down. A friggin zoo!

Unbelievable how many ways there are to make hiking uncomfortable...
- black jeans, black t-shirt, cowboy boots and no hat
- pushing an empty baby stroller while carrying the baby
- dress pants, dress shirt (at least he took the tie off at some point), dress shoes - nothing like a quick hike after Sunday mass I guess!
- etc.