New Year's hike: PCT from Swarthout Canyon

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Thu Jan 02, 2020 7:55 pm

I've been itching to get close to the snow in the San Gabriels. I've also been itching to hike the eastern portion of the PCT section D. So, on New Year's Day, my lady and I parked on Swarthout Canyon Road and hiked west on the PCT.

We encountered a couple patches of snow near where I parked (~3600 ft).

The snow increased gradually from that point, mainly in the shaded areas.

The snow got fairly deep at around 4100 ft: about 8-10". We decided to turn back at 2.2 miles in, as it was getting late and we didn't want to hike back in the snow in the dark.

It was a great outing and I really enjoyed seeing this area of the range. We didn't see anyone on the PCT, but we saw hundreds of cars on Lone Pine Canyon Rd and Swarthout Canyon Rd, presumably going to and from Wrightwood. It was amusing to see hoards of city slickers driving on Swarthout (dirt road).

Length: 4.3 mi
Gain: 745 ft
Recording: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recor ... -413-pm--3

Note: I tried uploading the photos as inline images but I had issues. Can we migrate to another message board system already? ?

Post by **dima** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:34 pm

Neat! Where was everybody going on Swarthout? I've only ever used it to connect from the Mormon Rocks area to the Lytle Creek area (via Sheep Canyon rd).

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:46 pm

dima wrote:Neat! Where was everybody going on Swarthout? I've only ever used it to connect from the Mormon Rocks area to the Lytle Creek area (via Sheep Canyon rd).

I suspect that they were going to and from Wrightwood to play in the snow. The 15 and 138 were jammed, so maybe Waze sent them to Wrightwood via Swarthout and Lone Pine Canyon.

Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:49 pm

It was a great day to be out, warm enough to be comfortable even in the snow.
Waze or just following the herds looking for snow.

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:35 am

The Swarthouts were some of the original Mormon pioneers of San Bernardino. Some of them lived in Lone Pine Canyon.

Here's Nathan

There's a great writeup on the whole clan you can read here ....

The History of the Swarthout Family

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:48 am

CrazyHermit wrote: ↑The Swarthouts were some of the original Mormon pioneers of San Bernardino. Some of them lived in Lone Pine Canyon.

Here's Nathan

There's a great writeup on the whole clan you can read here ....

The History of the Swarthout Family

Interesting. I was wondering where that name came from.

Post by **Sean** » Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:54 pm

Anthony wrote: ↑Note: I tried uploading the photos as inline images but I had issues. Can we migrate to another message board system already? ?

What sort of issues?

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Fri Jan 10, 2020 2:02 pm

Sean wrote: ↑
Anthony wrote: ↑Note: I tried uploading the photos as inline images but I had issues. Can we migrate to another message board system already? ?
What sort of issues?

It doesn't display them inline on my desktop. It has them as a gallery instead with a link to see more photos. Or maybe that's a new feature?