Happy new year all, new decade too. Although I frequently visit snow on my NYD hike, once again this year I didn't want to mess with dangerous conditions and overwhelming crowds in the Baldy area. That led me to more front range searching and I settled on Jones Peak. One advantage to doing these areas in the winter, most of them will be brutally hot once the weather turns to spring/summer. I left the house at a leisurely 7:15 and with virtually no traffic I got a parking spot at Bailey Canyon Park and was on the trail by 8am.
Leaving the park the trail is paved for a couple hundred yards before turning up into the canyon. Around here I spotted a coyote just above me trying to find a way through or around a chain link fence, after a couple photo attempts I left him to his own pursuits and wandered up into the cool shade of the official trail. A sign pointing to a waterfall just a quarter-mile away soon beckoned and I gladly set off on that route, only to find an extremely overgrown track with just a few puddles of water in the ground. The trail dead-ends at a 12 foot area where water might flow, although despite the wet hillsides it was barely seeping. Disappointed with the false advertising, I turned back to the trail and managed to slip on a large boulder so today I have a nice hip bruise as a memory. Reaching the main trail I headed up up up, this route is pretty steep. It's a nice job of trail building, as it's carved out of a very steep canyon and is still wide enough to comfortably pass others as needed. Pretty soon it breaks out into the sunshine, where a bench exists for those wanting to enjoy the vista below, this day Catalina Island was in plain view. Going up from there is an amazing number of switchbacks, some of them only 8-10 steps long. Finally the trail reaches a saddle with another sign pointing up to Jones Peak and over to the Mt Wilson main trail and Toll Road. I scrambled up to the summit of Jones Peak, where once again is a nice bench so I took advantage and rested there for a while and enjoyed the view. Going straight down to Sierra Madre from here is Bastard Ridge, which I had read about but didn't feel like tackling a 1700 foot gain in just a half mile. Once again I forgot my lighter so no hot cocoa for me, although the weather was nice enough to go in short sleeves all day. After I left the peak, once again I headed north up a steep grade to the next sign, indicating the toll road via Hastings Peak. I knew from the topo that it was just 1.2 miles, and I could see a semblance of trail going up. That petered out pretty quickly, and I managed to take the incorrect fork over to the right (north) side of the ridge, where I had to work my way around plenty of bushes. I was glad to be wearing long pants here, as even when I managed to get on the correct side I was still scraping through brush. I only saw a few footprints on this up and down section so it was a nice surprise to see a summit marker and plenty of nice rock seats at the top. Once again I took a nice break, chatting with a young lady that trailed me up the old fire break and having a Nature Valley snack. After another consultation with the map, I decided to take the connector trail over to the main Mt Wilson trail and then loop back to my parking spot via paved road. That connector shows as 6/10 of a mile on the topo while the sign marks it as one mile. I'm inclined to think it's the latter, since it took me a full 20 minutes to reach the Mt Wilson trail This one is a steep downhill, losing about 700 feet of elevation. It hardly gets any use, as a couple switchbacks have brush completely blocking them and the shortcuts down are hardly worn. Once arriving at the main trail, it's just a lot of downhill and plenty of people. I walk this one infrequently enough to somewhat forget how much I dislike it, I think I've once again had my fill of it for the next few years. The walk back to Bailey Canyon Park is a little strenuous on the pavement, but less than 20 minutes later I was packing up the Ranger for the drive home including a quick stop at McDonald's for some calorie replenishment.
About 11 miles and 3100 feet of elevation.
