Strawberry Peak via Colby Canyon

JMunaretto · Post by **JMunaretto** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:20 pm

Great climb again. Went up here yesterday morning with a group of 17. Some cloud coverage that, but we were able to most mountains, just not the basin. No snow noticed anywhere.

My readings give about 2700 on the way up, and another 300 on the way back...not sure about that last part, some clouds rushed in, I'm wondering how much that affects the local pressure. Anyways I could see this being closer to 2900 ft gain than 2600. Also # steps was about 17500, a lot more per mile that more steady inclined hikes.

Just up past Josephine Saddle:

On the way up the 'warm up' climb:

Trail nearing the base of Strawberry Peak:

Gotta love the girlfriend doing ALL the hikes:

More climbing:

Baldy in the middle, not sure what the two peaks (foreground and background) to the left are...one Twin Peak, Baden-Powell?

Some of the group that made it all the way up:

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:01 am

Looks like it was a beautiful hike. That same day, Saturday, I co-led a Sierra Club hike from Eaton Saddle. We went first to Mt. Lowe, which was above the cloud cover. When we dropped down to get to Sloan Saddle and the east route to Brown Mountain, we were in a cloud bank the whole way; no views from Brown's summit.

Next day, Tom Becht, Travis and I did a farewell hike for Travis (see General Discussion topic). Like your group, we did Strawberry from Colby Canyon. We continued down Strawberry's east ridge to Lawlor and took the firebreak from there to Barley Flats. We finished at Red Box. It was a beautiful day all the way. Nice pics you got!

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:25 pm

Nice pics JM.
One time about 10 years ago a friend and I rode our mountain bikes up the Mt. Wilson Toll Road to Mt. Wilson and then down to Red Box on the paved road. From there we decided to go to Strawberry Peak with our bikes. We made it to the top carrying our bikes and decided to go down via the Colby Canyon route.

It was getting late and we both had never been on that trail before. It took a while to get down that hard part and we finally made it down to the Angeles Crest Highway. It was crazy.

JMunaretto · Post by **JMunaretto** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:28 pm

you went down the west side of Strawberry Peak with your bike?! lol

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:46 am

Yep! We both did. It took a long time because our bikes were kinda new and we didn't want to scratch them on the sides of the rocks. So one of us would go down a steep part and the other would lower the bikes down etc. Never again.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:08 am

This was a really cool hike. The rock scrambling was a lot of fun. Sorry I didn't introduce myself, Joseph. For some reason it didn't occur to me that you were the same JM from this board. Btw, when I went back up the second time, I met a guy coming down the Colby Canyon trail on a MTB. I was like WTF? But I guess according to FIGHT ON, this is a normal occurrence.

JMunaretto · Post by **JMunaretto** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:29 am

Hey Tim! Good to see you on here. Hope to see you on the Baldy hike coming up.

I don't think I will ever be ready to organize any activity that includes Strawberry Peak's west face and mountain biking, seems destined for disaster!