Mt. Wilson via Chantry Flat 5/15/2010

[drhabes1]

It was an amazing adventure on Saturday as I wasn't disappointed with my hike from Chantry Flat to Mt. Wilson! Many thanks to HikeUp and PackerGreg for their input and maps of the area. Very helpful and useful! Robnokshus I should have taken your arrival advise more seriously! I knew we were in trouble when I saw a steady stream of cars coming back downhill near Santa Anita dam! Chantry Flat is a parking nightmare! We ended up hiking over 1 mile to get to the trail head. (I thought getting there at 7:15 am was early enough but not on a Saturday and a nice Spring day!)

The weather was amazing and we quickly traveled up to Hogee's by 9:15am. The spring flowers are amazing right now:


The Upper Winter Creek Trail past Hogee's is a continuous uphill ascent but amazingly beautiful this time of year:


Fortunately the fires and winter storms have not damaged this wonderful hiking trail or surrounding forest! I arrived at the bench to a group of 30 Korean hikers having lunch under the shade of a tree. I was sort of startled by the size of the group but didn't give it much thought as I rested next to the bench. A couple sitting on the bench then said "there's a bear behind you!" I immediately asked them if they were kidding but they said it was up in the tree!


I decided to quickly leave not wishing to wait for a possible encounter with its mother! As I was leaving I took these pictures from a distance as I headed up to Mt. Wilson.






The bear jumped out of the tree and wandered on over to where the Koreans were eating lunch!! Then one of those guys poked the bear in the butt with his hiking pole! Not the smartest move on his part. I decided it was time to get the heck out of dodge!!

I finally hit the top of Mt. Wilson around 12:30pm. Great scenery today! (The snows melting fast on Baldy!)






Unfortunately that last photo shows the devastating damage from last summer's fires on Lowe, Markham and San Gabriel Peak. It's really sad to look at.

Well I had to hurry up and get down off the mountain ( I was pretty "spent" at this point!) Finally worked my way down to my friends who took me over to the pack station for a pulled pork sandwich!



Man, did THAT hit the spot!! Another great day in SoCal!

The rest of the pictures are here: http://drhabes.smugmug.com/Backpacking/ ... 3256_dFndL

[Ze Hiker]

wow! that bear was not afraid to get close!!!

[Dave G]

Amazing bear encounter DrH! The few times I've hiked that trail I've seen bear scat, but I didn't realize they were so domesticated; lucky for the bear-butt-poker that mama wasn't around!
That sandwich looked pretty amazing too... 8)

[HikeUp]

Nice pictures - thanks for posting.

Hope they weren't feeding the bear.

How were the bugs?

[Hikin_Jim]

Nice TR!

Where the heck is momma bear? I hope that little bear isn't an orphan.

HJ

[drhabes]

Thanks guys! No, they weren't feeding the bear but I certainly wouldn't be eating under a tree where a bear was camped out! I was also surprised that the mom bear wasn't around.

The bugs, on the other hand, were NASTY! From the bench to the top they were really swarming! Not so bad on the way down though...

[PackerGreg]

That bench was built as a memorial for a trail runner out of Sierra Madre that died on the ridge. I believe he hit an ice chute while running with his daughter, but not positive. I heard the story quite a while ago, however I did hear it from one of the men that built the bench: Pete McNulty.

Pete has been a familiar figure at Lizzie's Trail Inn and on the Old Mount Wilson Trail. Now you often see him working on the Stock Trail in BigSAC.

They drove the material up by way of the Toll Road, as close as they could, but they had to carry not only the lumber and the concrete to the site, but also the water to mix the concrete in 5-gallon Sparkletts/Alhambra type jugs.

I passed this along to Eric Woodyard (the Dutch oven chef). He will be pleased!

[AlanK]

That bench was built as a memorial for a trail runner out of Sierra Madre that died on the ridge. I believe he hit an ice chute while running with his daughter, but not positive. I heard the story quite a while ago, however I did hear it from one of the men that built the bench: Pete McNulty.

The bench is in honor of David Trinkle, who fell on the closed section of the Mt. Wilson Trail below First Water about 10 years ago. Here is part of an LA Times article about the tragic death.

Hiker Dies After Falling From Mountain Trail

Accidents: Man had taken afternoon off to explore San Gabriels with daughter, 8, who was unharmed.

April 08, 2000

JOE MOZINGO and RICHARD WINTON, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A Sierra Madre man on a sunset hike with his daughter died Thursday after he slipped off the side of a steep trail in the San Gabriel Mountains and fell hundreds of feet while his 8-year-old girl helplessly screamed out for him. David Trinkle, 44, a bank vice president, was found barely alive in the narrow canyon late that night, but was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, said Sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Handcox. The Sheriff's Department did not remove his body until 8 a.m. Friday because navigating a helicopter in the mountains at night is extremely dangerous, officials said. Trinkle's death comes as prime hiking season begins and thousands of people pour into the rugged terrain of the so-called front range, where trails follow scraggly canyon walls straight from neighborhood streets into the isolated wilderness. The Mt. Wilson Trail is one of the most popular and historic, winding to the Wilson summit, with its world-famous observatories. But the unique geology of the San Gabriels creates special hazards, forestry officials warn. Because the mountains are so young and fractured by seismic faults, the rock is loose, the trails are narrow and the slopes are steep. Trinkle was an ultra-marathon runner who decided to take his daughter Andrea on a hike because she was out of school for spring break, according to friends.

"He was trying to spend time with his daughter," said one friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He has a very high-pressure job."

Trinkle took part of the afternoon off from his job at GMAC Commercial Credit bank in Los Angeles. His wife dropped him and his daughter off, along with their Dalmatian, at the Mt. Wilson Trail near Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre. Trinkle and his daughter started up the twisting path, traversing rocky, sun-beaten terrain toward a lush creekside spot called First Water. About 6:30 p.m., Trinkle and his daughter were walking back to town when a jogger named Will Sera came up behind them. Just above some steep switchbacks, he saw them climb off the main trail, over a berm and onto an old trail that had been washed out.

"Those of us who go up there a lot, you know the area and want to see what happened to the trail," said Sera, explaining that he too had once climbed onto the lower trail.

[Hikin_Jim]

Trinkle died between First Water and the trailhead (I know the spot) on the Mt. Wilson trailhead. Interesting that they would put the bench where they did instead of at, say, First Water.

HJ

[outwhere]

Those bear pics are crazy - I woulda never guessed. Like you said drhabes, exit stage right, right quick! Well, there was no news of a bear attack, so it must have been the groups lucky day.

Still, isn't this pretty darn rare for a bear to be so friendly?

Maybe he was just on his way to pick up some pork sandwiches Anybody spot him at Chantry?

Man, I remember the late, lazy days when we could get to Chantry Flat parking lot at 9am and there'd still be some parking. Same went for Ice House Canyon. Granted that was awhile ago, but not THAT long ago.

Nice TR!