We met at JPL and started the hike on the El Prieto Trail making it a loop hike of 14 miles.
The El Prieto trail was mostly shady. We headed towards the Brown Mtn Saddle and hiked up the road to the Ken Burton Saddle.
The start of the Ken Burton trail is shady but the majority of it is exposed.
View of Brown Mtn from the Ken Burton Trail.
The trail is well maintained but there are some narrow, sketchy parts according to some of the mountain bikers we met at the saddle. They said bikers prefer not to go that way because of the steepness.
We headed down towards the wash on the Gabrielino Trail.There were pink trail markers on several trees which was a good thing becuause there was evidence of trail maintenance in the opposite direction by the wash.
We passed a H2O tank hidden behind some trees which was too high for me to climb.
We continued on the trail and headed pass the damn and took a break at Paul Little campground before heading back to JPl.
Benchmark.
Overall, it was a pretty nice trail. There are some really narrow areas descending the Ken Burton Trail, so I can understand the concern of the bikers. There were a couple of washouts and areas on this trail that showed evidence of someone or something that might have fallen off trail.