INTROS - New members, introduce yourself here!

Logan · Post by **Logan** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:09 am

Welcome to the board. It is an honor to have you here.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:21 pm

Hello everyone! My name is Gabriel and I'm 35 years of age. I grew up around the San Gabriel Valley for the most part of my life. I always enjoyed going up to our local mountains with my cousins. When we were in our young teens we didn't know how to prepare very well. As time went by we learned better ways to backpack and were able to venture out farther than our local mountains. I took some time off from the wilderness but just getting back into it. I'm still healthy and have great opportunities to get back out again. I look forward to finding more information on these threads and hope to explore new lands and meet more friends.

Sincerely,

Gabe

rpmiller · Post by **rpmiller** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:39 am

This is about 25 miles from my house on top of Scotchman's Peak looking down on the town of Clark Fork where the Clark Fork River enters Lake Pend Oreille. This critter took my lunch while I was taking other pictures.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:33 pm

Nice photo. Sorry about your lunch.

HJ

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:22 pm

A picture like that is worth a lunch. Thanks for posting.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:12 pm

Nice to meet you and a very nice photo. I'm hoping I can purchase some land in Idaho one day. I'm currently in Southern California.

rck · Post by **rck** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:14 am

I am getting back into hiking after a couple of decades hiatus. Going to take it slow then ramp up. My son now hikes with his friends and I tell him how it used to be on the trails. So I am going to give it a shot by a walk to Monrovia Falls, from the lower parking of course.

Rick

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:54 am

Monrovia Falls is a nice one. Sawpit Canyon (same trail head) is also nice.

Welcome.

HJ

Post by **Sean** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:24 pm

rck wrote: ↑So I am going to give it a shot by a walk to Monrovia Falls, from the lower parking of course.

Welcome. Monrovia Falls was one of my first attempts at impressing a lady. Unfortunately I fell and nearly broke my face on the upper rocks. Luckily, though, the lady did not see any of my mishap.

Post by **Taco** » Thu Jan 09, 2014 3:31 pm

Sean wrote: ↑
rck wrote: ↑So I am going to give it a shot by a walk to Monrovia Falls, from the lower parking of course.
Welcome. Monrovia Falls was one of my first attempts at impressing a lady. Unfortunately I fell and nearly broke my face on the upper rocks. Luckily, though, the lady did not see any of my mishap.

As someone who has done the same thing on several occasions, I am happy your honor remains intact. 8)

rck · Post by **rck** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:07 pm

Well this past Friday I made it out there, Met up with Bob Dollins there, Good person in all. He gave me a tour of the trails and even up to an new trail that goes up to a high point looking due south. The falls were cool and only one bear was seen by others on the trail Well It was fun and I made it through with no issues. Looking forward to my next trip after adding a few more essentials to my pack. Did not want to buy too much until I knew what I needed. Now I sort of know.
I am sure most of you have seen this before but here is a link to some more pictures of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclericky ... 706335163/
Rick

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:58 pm

Nice pics, Rick! Welcome to the forum!

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:41 pm

Welcome aboard, Rick. Nice pictures. Keep them coming.

Bobcat22 · Post by **Bobcat22** » Fri May 16, 2014 5:56 am

Hi my name is Robert and I love the outdoors in general. Since I was a kid I was always fishing, camping, hiking, and swimming. Now I am pretty focussed on hiking and last year hiked in Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks and have tried to do at least one hike a week. Hiking is a great workout by the way.

I work in a boring office that I am going to leave this summer after I take my vacation. I love to travel and have seen Europe a few times, Mexico, and a lot of the US. I love beer too but then again who doesn't?

I am mostly hiking the area around Mount Baldy but eventually will move out to other areas. Any advice or suggestions are always appreciated.

cahikr · Post by **cahikr** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:19 pm

Hi my name is Brian and I will be 55 in two weeks.
I have lived in Orange county my whole life and have been obssesed with hiking since my day's in the scouts 45 years ago.

redhead242 · Post by **redhead242** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 8:29 pm

Hi, I'm Courtney. I currently live in the South Bay but my heart belongs to Pasadena. I started hiking about three years ago after moving to Pasadena from elsewhere (with crappy hiking) and I do it now as often as I can. So far the San Gabriels are my favorite but I am working on branching out. Really steep trails freak me out and I am terrified of falling off the trail. I probably should buy some hiking poles to help with that.

Post by **HikeUp** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:23 pm

redhead242 wrote: ↑I probably should buy some hiking poles to help with that.

Several redheads on this forum!

More experience (i.e. more repititions) will help with that even better.

Personally, I think hiking poles can cause more problems than help, but it depends on your experience in using them.

grammacrobat · Post by **grammacrobat** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:40 am

Hi folks!

I've been lurking here for a long time taking advantage of all the great info and trip reports that are posted. Thought I'd actually say hello. I'm Andrew, I'm 27, and I've been hiking in the San Gabriels for about 3 years now. Many of my trips were inspired by posts made here - so thanks! Hopefully I'll have something to contribute in return soon.

funkymountain · Post by **funkymountain** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:01 pm

Hi,
My name is Jon Funk and I love heading into the mountains. Turning 36 this year. I've been checking in with this site to gather info on conditions or new ideas for exploring, even techniques and gear tips, for the past few years now. I saw a face I recognized on my last trip up Baldy, Tekewin, (How was your day on Baldy?) and decided I needed to be a contributor here not just a user. I have been inspired and enlightened by all the great explorers and adventurers here. Thank you all.
My favorite local peak is Baldy. I really enjoy the Register Ridge/ Ski Hut loop. I have the San Antonio Ridge and coming up from Wrightwood on my bucket list. I love the solitude of the ridge, Harwood and the chance to see bighorn sheep.
I've got three kids and love taking them on adventures too. My oldest is 10 and we have enjoyed backpacking and hiking together. He did Baldy via Ski Hut trail when he was 8. We are planning a San Gorgonio trip this summer and hopefully Whitney the year after.
I'm excited to finally be a member of this community of explorers!

Post by **tekewin** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 9:47 pm

Hey, Jon Funk. What a cool name! Welcome to the forum. It was nice meeting you on the trail.

FYI, my trip sucked that day. I was moving slowly and got a calf cramp at the ski hut, where I turned around. Hope you had a good trip and look forward to your reports, especially the ridge if you cross Gunsight Notch.

funkymountain · Post by **funkymountain** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 1:53 am

Tekewin, Sorry to hear about your day on Baldy. Hope that leg recovered quick. I had a good trip. Climbed to South side of the bowl. Snow was already pretty thin. Crampons and axe were just for show that day. Glad I got some action in before it's all gone. Someday I need to head over to Gorgonio. Need a whole day to do that peak though.

EBruddah · Post by **EBruddah** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 1:43 pm

Hello...

I love the SGM and I've been in and around them my whole life. I'm coming back from a long backpacking hiatus and looking for people who enjoy the local area as much as I do. I have over 30 years of camping/hiking experience mostly off of 39 in the East and West Forks. Looking forward to sharing on this forum and hearing from all of you here!!!

Shangri-LA · Post by **Shangri-LA** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:47 pm

Hi, my name is Mike, I'm 38 years old living in Pasadena with my wife and 2 kids.

I grew up in northern California and have been deeply involved in the outdoors most of my life. I started raft guiding at age 17, leading backpacking trips in college at UCSB, and did some very remote graduate fieldwork in the Oregon Cascades.

I'm a Geography professor, which is what brought me to the LA area in 2009. I've been living in Pasadena and exploring the cismontane transverse ranges as much as possible.

I'm one of a pretty small number of people that whitewater kayak in the San Gabriels, and although the last few years have not provided much opportunity, I have a few first descents in mind this winter.

Any creeks you can think of that are kayakable, feel free to pm me.

Shangri-LA · Post by **Shangri-LA** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:07 pm

And although it isn't anywhere near as nice as some of the more remote parts of the SG's, here is the section near the mouth of the canyon

Billy Ray · Post by **Billy Ray** » Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:06 pm

Name: "Looking Good Billy Ray! Feeling Good Louis!" If you get this quote you'll get the name.

Age: 32

Me: I have always loved the outdoors since I was a kid. I was born and raised here in socal but growing up I spent a lot of time in MT & ID in the summers with family. I enjoy camping, hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, snowboarding & other outdoor/mountain fun. I also appreciate the finer things in life like eating, sleeping and reading wikipedia for hours.

psykokid · Post by **psykokid** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 2:20 am

Name: Jake

Age: 39

Grew up just south of St. Louis. Did a lot of fishing, hunting and camping growing up. Did some day hiking here and there after I moved to the area in 98.

Last summer I hiked White Mtn Peak with a friend on the open gate day at the end of July. I thought I was in decent shape, I thought wrong. Summited but it was a struggle. After that I started getting out and hiking the Mt. Wilson trail in the morning before work a few days during the week and hiking out of Chantry Flats on the weekends. With those morning hikes and a few others thrown in for giggles ( Islip to Baden Powell, Horseshoe Meadows to Mt. Langley via Cottonwood Lakes for example) I manged to rack up 300 miles on trail by the end of 2015. In doing this I had doubled my average pace from when I started (from 2 to 4 mph, avg) and dropped about 40 lbs of weight.

I've been slacking the first few months of 2016, I've only logged around 40 miles on trail thusfar, mostly on hikes with my son's boy scout troop. Time to get off my duff and get back to it

Post by **Sean** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:26 am

Welcome, Jake! Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures. I also dropped a few pounds while going up and down the Wilson Trail. I even did the Wilson Trail Race once, fell on the way down, and nearly tumbled off the side. Not my proudest moment.

Matt.Kuzkina · Post by **Matt.Kuzkina** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 1:49 pm

My name is Ray, age 35.

I have been hiking in the area since my USC days, that is 16 years ago. Love these mountains. I have not done much snow climbing/hiking. Plan is to climb Rainier in an year or so, so it is time to learn those self arrest skills !

Post by **JeffH** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 8:24 pm

Welcome Ray.
Finally have some snow to work with, the last few years have been pretty dry.

robow8 · Post by **robow8** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:32 am

My name is Rob, and I'm an old fart (59). Started backpacking in Scouts in the 70s, as a Scout leader took boys out in the 80s. Hoegees, Oakwilde, Gabrielino trail; we went all over the place. Life got in the way until a few years ago when me and my wife started backpacking again. We love getting out, and spend a week every year up in the Sierra.