My New Favorite Loop in the Santa Ana's

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 9:10 pm

Los Pinos Peak – Bell Ridge – Yaeger Mesa – Trabuco Canyon Trail loop

I hiked/ran the same loop in consecutive weeks. I thought it was some of the best scenery in all of the Santa Ana Mountains.

Started on the main divide road near bluejay campground and followed the normal route to los pinos peak ~2-2.5mi . Reached the peak in about 35 min

From the peak I backtracked and descended the bell ridge trail which was very steep in a few spots but had fantastic views of saddleback, los pinos peak, and the bell canyon.

About 2 miles down the ridge is a singletrack trail that’s very easy to miss. Drops down a fewhundred feet down a very steep luge like trail to yeager mesa.

Kept following the trail down to the Trabuco canyon trail

And back up to the saddle of the main divide and the los pinos trail.

I watched the sunset over the yeager mesa on the way up the Trabuco canyon trail.

Post by **tekewin** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 8:50 am

Thanks for the report. You didn't post the stats, but that is a good workout. Must be 10+ miles and 2000'+ gain.

Looking at those pictures, I am definitely interested in Bell Ridge. Caltopo doesn't show the trail, but Openstreetmap does. Neither one shows a trail from Bell Ridge down to the mesa.

scottawr · Post by **scottawr** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 8:29 pm

My gps watch was acting up so I don't have a track for this one.

I know there is a few mountain bike blogs/forums with the "trabuco/Yeager loop" that should have a track. The trail is pretty easy to miss coming down the bell ridge from Los pinos. The opening for the trail faces downhill, I ran past it by 1/2 mile and climbed to the next bump.

someone also hauled a bell up to Yeager Mesa... Yea it's a big heavy iron bell... Ding dong ...