Twin Peaks and Mt Waterman: 04 May 2008

[Mike P]

Sunday, May 4th was a beautiful hiking day in the San Gabriels. We took off from Three Points at 7:50 am with temps in the high 40's. The Twin Peaks Trail was in great shape with filterable water in a couple of places.


From the the trail we had several great views of the Twins:



The USGS topo (Topo software) for the hike is seriously in error. The Twin Peak trail is fairly level and the trail junction for the Twin Peak Saddle is in the wrong location. The Harrison map is much more accurate and agreed with my GPS. Anyhow, the uphill towards East Twin started innocuously enough but then the virtually non-existent trail became very steep. There is probably 30% snow coverage on the north-facing slope:






The view north to Waterman was great:


We hit the summit by 11:50 for a half hour lunch. The views from the summit were incredible. On our trip back down we ran into 26 Koreans hiking up. Gotta' give them credit; most of them appeared to be in their 50s and 60s. Here is a view of cloud-shrouded Baldy and Hwy 39:



The snow drifts made the downhill trip challenging. I glissaded a couple of snow patches.



The trek back up to the Mt. Waterman Trail junction was tough on tired legs. From the Twin Peak Saddle to the Waterman junction, ~2miles, took us ~1.25 hours. The trip down to the parking lot above Buckhorn was a welcome downhill stretch. We finished up at 4:00pm.

To give you an idea about snow coverage on East Twin...

[He219]

Nice pix Mike P!
Looks beautiful up there ..

[FIGHT ON]

I've never been to twin peaks. Gotta check it out. Nice pictures.

[HikeUp]

Mr. P: thanks for sharing the pics and the good beta.

[JMunaretto]

Nice!

Are those snow patches avoidable?

Even if they aren't, doesn't look like I could fall too far...

[Taco]

Twin Peaks is one of my favorite places on Earth. Awesome stuff up there.

[Hikin_Jim]

Very nice pix and very nice 411. Thanks, Mike!

[AW~]

Looks great...nice visibility too, I hope I can catch some of that.

[JMunaretto]

Whats the parking situation like at Buckhorn and Three Points trailheads, ample parking?

[AlanK]

Whats the parking situation like at Buckhorn and Three Points trailheads, ample parking?

Three Points parking lot (ample)

[FIGHT ON]

Those aren't the twin peaks in that pic are they? Seems real close to the road.

[Mike P]

Fight On- Alan's picture of Three Points is a northeast view. All of the Twin Peaks action is to the southwest and completely hidden from the view from Three Points.

Joe- There is tons of parking at both trailheads. Three Points and Buckhorn parking (on Hwy 2) are 5 miles apart. Also, the snow patches are avoidable BUT trying to go around them would make the hike more difficult. Enough folks have gone over the patches that footholds have been dug in. One more heat wave and the snow will be significantly lessened.

Taco is right on. Twin Peaks is absolutely worth the effort! It's a ballbuster, though, especially if you plan to go through to Buckhorn. While on the summit we scouted a potential route from the SE (as discussed in a previous thread.) There should be some award for even thinking about it!

[Taco]

Got a question for ya guys who take Three Points: is there any quality bouldering in the area?

[Hikin_Jim]

Got a question for ya guys who take Three Points: is there any quality bouldering in the area?

There are some nice boulders as I recall. I'm not a climber, so I'm not sure how "quality" they are, but they're not DG (decomposed granite) like much of the San Gabs. They were harder. As I recall, there were some fairly close to the trailhead. Next time you're by 3 points, hop down that trail a ways and check it out.

[Taco]

Good stuff. As long as they don't come apart in your hands, and are something like 8ft or so high, or more. Similar to what's on Twin Peaks, and the saddle between East and West Twin.

[Hikin_Jim]

Good stuff. As long as they don't come apart in your hands, and are something like 8ft or so high, or more. Similar to what's on Twin Peaks, and the saddle between East and West Twin.

I think the rocks there will fit the bill. There's a lot of manzanita and stuff on that face as I recall. Some of the bigger formations are off the trail. I haven't been on that trail for a while, so I can't say what the brush is exactly like or exactly where the rocks are. There were some cool ones right off the trail that were, I believe, 8' or so.

[Taco]

Getting out to Sunland to go up the 2 (only to end up not far from R39, argh) is the hard part for me. I might do that relatively soon, as my buddy wants to do some climbing. We'll explore some stuff. There are several crack climbs up to 5.9 on Waterman, I've read. Seek and destroy (my ego, probably).

[Hikin_Jim]

Getting out to Sunland to go up the 2 (only to end up not far from R39, argh) is the hard part for me. I might do that relatively soon, as my buddy wants to do some climbing. We'll explore some stuff. There are several crack climbs up to 5.9 on Waterman, I've read. Seek and destroy (my ego, probably).

Yah, a bit of a drive. Google says it's one hour to three points from Azusa. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&g ... 8&t=p&z=15. Still that's not that bad compared to heading out to San Gorg or San Jac.

[Taco]

True. My plan is to tackle any objectives, mainly bouldering, easy trad, and sport stuff, in 2 days, camping out in my car, most likely (to deter theft). A sort of grand tour of ACH, both from a motoring point of view, and for climbing and such.

[Hikin_Jim]

True. My plan is to tackle any objectives, mainly bouldering, easy trad, and sport stuff, in 2 days, camping out in my car, most likely (to deter theft). A sort of grand tour of ACH, both from a motoring point of view, and for climbing and such.

Haven't heard of a lot of break ins in the high country. Buckhorn is a good camp if you want a camp ground. Or were you just planning to park n' camp?

[Taco]

I dunno. Wing it, I suppose. Just going to camp in the car for the most part.

[Hikin_Jim]

I dunno. Wing it, I suppose. Just going to camp in the car for the most part.

Cool. It's all good. However, that area's not like the area above Azusa. You should be OK if you want to stretch out at the camp. 'Course I guess you'd have to pay the CG fee whereas if you just pull off the road there's no fee. If you went a bit down the Santa Clara Divide Road (3N17), there's not a lot of traffic back in there. I'm sure you could find a spot where no one would bug ya. Maybe even in the parking lot at Three Points.

[AlanK]

Got a question for ya guys who take Three Points: is there any quality bouldering in the area?

Check this out.

If you're looking to escape the LA summer heat and get on some of the best granite boulders in Southern California; with the exception of crowds, smog and trash Horse Flats has it all (including some good TR climbs). Situated a little over an hour north of Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest at an elevation of over 5,000' large granite boulders cover the hillside of this beautiful mountain setting.

The area specialty is arete climbing but there are plenty of crack and face problems as well. Most landings are flat and often soft taking a little fear out of the many highball problems. If you are used to chalk covered holds marking the route (like tape in a gym) then this area is not for you.

Since Horse Flats sees so little traffic (on weekdays you might be the only person around for miles) most problems feel like a first ascent. Since it is so isolated bring a partner/spotter or at least let somebody know where you are, it is a very painful hike back to the car with a sprained ankle (speaking from experience). You could be stuck there for hours if your injuries are worse (cell phones don't work here).

[FIGHT ON]

My plan is to tackle any objectives

"whatever it takes"

[Taco]

Horse Flats is on the menu as well!