New snow and a weekend/holiday meant that I was not willing to fight traffic so I drove out to Altadena and walked up to Inspiration Point. I had a glimmer of an idea to also visit Mt Lowe but I very easily talked myself out of it when the fog and cold rolled over the picnic tables. Arriving at about 7:10, I first had to take everything apart as my Camelbak leaked due to operator error, I didn't thread in the cap properly. Once I got things somewhat dry I walked up and took the Sam Merrill trail just below Echo Mountain. That was a great route, I only saw one other person until until I was nearly to the Mt Lowe road around the back side. While I saw a few clouds early, when I got to the road it was pretty thick fog and the world famous telescopic views weren't real good. I sat around for a while and ate a couple pop-tarts, actually had a few minutes of sun before more clouds showed up and it was actually pretty cold. I went back via the Castle Canyon trail, this one is in very rough shape right now - it's always been rugged, now there are a few washed out sections too. After a very brief detour over to White City where I removed my jacket, I powered back to the starting point. I stopped at Everest Burgers on Lake Ave, seemed a bit too expensive for frequent visits. While there I talked to a local resident about many many things including Churchill, Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln, US Grant, Ava Gardner and Judy Garland.
Alltrails measured about 10.5 miles and 2900 feet of elevation gain.
Photography-
Clear enough to see downtown LA and the blimp over the Rose Parade route.
Sam Merrill junction, the day was warming up nicely.
White City remains. I could here plenty of folks testing the echo tubes.
I was not expecting to see frost on the trail!
I like when the trails look like they are going off into the great nowhere. First of the dark clouds here too.
The views were not inspiring when I got up here.
Five minutes of sunshine, more clouds on the way.
Last look at IP on the way down.
On the way up I noticed a trash bag near the post, turns out they were new sign boards that were installed while I was away.
"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
