Heaton Flat - Iron Mountain

[Elwood]

Saturday morning I drove up San Gabriel Canyon, across the East Fork Road and parked at Heaton Flat. I was on the hoof by 0630. It took around 5:30 to summit. I'll add some more verbiage to this report later.



Morning sun lights up burned area above Shoemaker / "Road to Nowhere".


Today's destination looms in the distance.


Little piece of the Heaton Flat trail, with pleasant foliage.


Getting closer...barely.


Rattlesnake Peak, Twin Peaks and the Hawkins Ridge.


Top of Allison Gulch, Southwest section of Iron's roof.


Representative section of what the rest of the trail is like.


It was a very clear day; downtown L.A. over Glendora.


Fairly typical Iron terrain on a less steep section.


Gunsight notch of the San Antonio Ridge, seen from the Iron Mountain trail.


Rattlesnake Peak, Hawkins Ridge, Twin Peaks, Mt. Wilson in the left background.


San Antonio Ridge, seen from Iron's summit.


Mount San Antonio, from Iron.


Pine Mountain, Dawson Peak and part of the S.A. Ridge.


Pine Mountain Ridge and Blue Ridge.


Western sections of Pine and Blue Ridges.


Mount Baden-Powell and Ross Mountain. Iron's North ridge in the foreground.


Rattlesnake Peak and the ridge off to Hawkins' on the right.


Mount San Antonio, with some Iron trail features in the foreground.


A tiny Crotalus Oreganus Helleri trailside.


GPS track and elevation plot.

[lilbitmo]

Saturday morning I drove up San Gabriel Canyon, across the East Fork Road and parked at Heaton Flat. I was on the hoof by 0630. It took around 5:30 to summit. I'll add some more verbiage to this report later.



Morning sun lights up burned area above Shoemaker / "Road to Nowhere".


Rattlesnake Peak, Twin Peaks and the Hawkins Ridge.

Pictures never tell the whole story, how bad does it look on the "East Face" of Rattlesnake? and were you able to see how much damage there is leading up the ridge from Rattlesnake to So. Hawkins, the last incident report map made it sound like the fire made it to about 700 feet below the So. Hawkins before they were able to contain it?

Wondering how long before they open that area up again?

Great TR as always, great pictures, how was the heat on the way down?

Lilbitmo/Patrick

[Elwood]

Thanks for the nice comments lilbitmo! I was trying really hard to assess the condition of the trail to Rattlesnake, and beyond to Hawkins'. I wouldn't want have to rely on my observation too rigorously. Most of what I saw looked singed. Much of the adjacent flora was still late, dry, autumn green. The stuff in the path of Williams was decidedly brown or black.

Here's an enlargement of what appears to be the limit of the damage to Hawkins Ridge.



And yes, it was hot. The four liters that I carried was just barely enough. Glad I've taken to leaving a couple of liters on ice in the car.

[lilbitmo]

Thanks for the nice comments lilbitmo! I was trying really hard to assess the condition of the trail to Rattlesnake, and beyond to Hawkins'.

If you are assessing for the reason I think you are send me a message through the backside, let's plan something for Dec?

[Taco]

I see the fire made some canyons slightly more accessible!