Forum Anniversary - Monte Cristo Edition

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
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Sean
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Post by Sean »

Over the weekend some of us celebrated the forum's anniversary with a trip to Monte Cristo Campground and hikes to Rabbit, Granite and Roundtop. Cecelia and I started by driving to the campground on Friday afternoon and securing site #11, which has space for several tents under a big sycamore tree. Jeff arrived later and said I picked the best location.
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We hung out at the campground and played "Would you rather?" The weather was a little warm, but a cool, afternoon breeze kept us happy. For dinner we cooked tacos and quesadillas, and drank beer. We watched the rush hour traffic on the highway, which is visible from the campground. Also, our neighbors decided to blast loud music, causing a nuisance until 11pm. Monte Cristo quickly became my least favorite campground, but, hey, at least it has shade, fresh water, and tolerable pit toilets.

The night was cold but not cold enough for me to put on socks or gloves. After breakfast we strolled down canyon looking for a flowing stream. We only found small pools and mud about fifteen minutes down the path. That's what we get for waiting too long in the season to visit Monte Cristo. We headed back to the campground as the day began heating up.
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Jeff left and brought more ice for the cooler. While he was gone, Nate and Forest arrived after lunch. We collected rocks around the campsite, then Jeff had to return home.
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Later, Nate, Forest and I visited the water tank above the campground and some of the small pools upstream from the campground. In the secret pool Forest found tiny frogs and weird-looking bugs.
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Cecelia and I hung out with Nate while Forest played with other kids in the campground. Our guests had a choice of Pepsi, 805, Mike's Hard Lemonade, or Pineapple Mango juice. Nate had a Pepsi, which meant I didn't have to drink all eight of them myself. One of the monster truck toys broke, but Nate fixed the wheel with limited tools available and saved the day. Eventually Forest wanted to check out the pools at Hidden Springs. So they took off an hour or two before dark, but Nate "definitely maybe" would be back Sunday morning for the group hike.

Cecelia and I ate a freeze-dried dinner and relaxed until Dima and Matthew arrived. We all drank beer and talked about the good life. Earlier I had confronted the music blasters and they had slightly reduced the noise level, so life was even improved on that front. But now we had a couple new neighbors who enjoyed yelling at each other. Oh, well, it didn't affect my sleeping at all.
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On Sunday we woke up early to be ready around 8am for the group hike to Rabbit Peak and beyond. Nate and David were meeting us at the trailhead at the opposite end of the campground.
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The fire road has a long, flat part which David, Dima, Matthew and Nate bypassed via a steep ridge. I'll let them describe that adventure.
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Cecelia and I enjoyed the gentler and shadier stroll through the canyon. Then we turned left before the Monte Cristo mining operation and headed out of the canyon where we rejoined the guys.
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Further up the road we found the narrow summit path that leaves the road and climbs the south ridge of Rabbit.
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There are several ways to gain this ridge from the road, and between the group we utilized three different routes. But eventually we all filed onto the main path and worked our way to the top of the peak.
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We enjoyed the views and placed Eispiraten swag in the cairn. It was a beautifully clear day. A little warm but not unbearable like during the summer. The guys eyeballed the big loop with Granite and Roundtop in view. Dima, Matthew and Nate decided to advance the mission, while David, Cecelia and I headed back to camp. David wanted to catch football on TV, so we said goodbye after a casual descent from Rabbit. Cecelia and I relaxed and rehydrated at camp until the guys returned mid-afternoon. They looked and sounded tired, except for Dima, who defeats most mountains with ease and energy to spare.

Overall I think this edition of the Eispiraten anniversary was a big success. Let's do this again next year!
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dima
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Post by dima »

Thanks for organizing, Sean and to everybody else for coming out! We hiked some old fire breaks, looking for spotty bits of shade and an occasional artifact or critter. The views made this all worth it. Great to finally meet you, David!

The 6 of us started at Monte Cristo camp in the morning, and headed up the road. When the road crosses the S ridge of Rabbit peak, 4 of us turned left to climb straight up the ridge, instead of taking a more circuitous route on the road. The Black Crow Mine was supposedly nearby, so we made a small detour. There isn't a lot here, but we did find a large, nondescript, rusted sheet of metal with a cool old-timey stamped label:

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Sold by Brown-Bevis Co Machinery-contractors 49th&Santa Fe Los Angeles Calif
This is deep Vernon today.

On the way up to Rabbit Peak

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The operating Monte Cristo mine buildlings are seen from above:

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The views improve on the way up. San Gabriel, Barley flat, Lawlor, Strawberry, Josephine:

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Lukens, Fox, Condor:

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Wilson, San Gabriel

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Round Top, and the descent ridge:

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The upcoming climb to Granite:

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Saw a few Horned Toads

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Approaching Granite, the geology changes (Nate can tell you all about it), and cool rock formations proliferate

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The summit is flat, with more rocks, some dead old trees, some living new trees, and a clear view of all sorts of things

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On the way down to Round Top, a great view opens up to Alder Crag.

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Round Top is unexciting, but descending it is

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It was warm and we have seen what there is to see. We checked out a collapsed mine

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And called it a day, skipping Iron #3 in the process. Picked a descent line that dropped directly to camp, where Sean had cold beer and soda. Let's do it again next year!
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Nate U
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Post by Nate U »

This was my second Eis Piraten anniversary, and I'm told the 17th that has occurred. This place may be a minor for one more year, but we still drank beers at the campsite.

• Monte Cristo is probably the closest overnight car camping campground to where I live, so its got that going for it, along with plentiful anorthosite. Anorthosite is a crystalline intrusive rock made up of almost entirely plagioclase mineral. It also makes up the majority of the surface of the moon, and scientists still can't figure out how it could have formed. So camping at Monte Cristo is the closest thing we have to getting to camp on the moon. The white anorthosite around the campground will reflect the moonlight the same way the moonlight has reflected off anorthosite to reach it.

• Exploring streams looking for fish and other neat animals is a serious hobby for Forest, and we have extensively explored the lower Tujunga Creek, so it was fun do a bit of that much further upstream. To Forest's great joy, despite the time of the year we found a few pools hidden within the undergrowth, full of riparian wonders, like more of those granitic-camouflaged frogs. I now know these are California Tree Frogs, originating in the San Bernardino Mtns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_tree_frog
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• Forest's passion for exploring stream pools and catching fish meant he was adamant about stopping at Hidden Springs on the way back to "find the deeper pools" so as the sun set, we scrambled along every possible pool we could find, in search of fish and anything else. No fish, but Forest impressed me with his footwork and determination in rough terrain.
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• Driving back up Sunday morning, encountered a not unfamiliar site along the highways of our mountains.... le sigh.
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• It was kind of cool crashing through the brush in search of a lost mine and gaining a steep ridge with the likes of David R, Dima and Jeko after having read so many of their epic trip reports.

• good to see Sean out bagging a peak after the struggle he has had with his back all year. Hadn't seen Girl Hiker in a minute either.

• Dima Jeko and I crushed the Rabbit, Granite and Roundtop circuit. Keeping pace with those guys is an excellent workout! I will say Dima is more capable of sustaining a conversation about aerospace photographic telemetry while climbing a 50%-grade firebreak without having to catch his breath than I am.

• We crossed from the anorthosite over onto the granite, and Granite peak was cool, featuring trees that ripped layers of the chunky crystalline stone right out of the bedrock after succumbing to the Station fire, in a striking display of mechanical weathering.
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• More steep firebreaks coming down Roundtop, and some excellent views of the legendary Alder Creek Crag and the whole Tujunga watershed stretching below us.
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Happy birthday, Eis Piraten 🤘
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HikeUp
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Post by HikeUp »

Missed it again. Looks like fun (except the fellow campers blaring music - tools).

So sad to see the trees on Granite and Round Top gone. Here's a picture of Granite taken from Round Top 15 years ago...
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And just for fun, a similar pic to one posted above (also from 15 years ago)...
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Girl Hiker
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Post by Girl Hiker »

It was so nice to see everyone!
Looking forward to the next adventure.
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dima
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Post by dima »

HikeUp wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:12 pm So sad to see the trees on Granite and Round Top gone. Here's a picture of Granite taken from Round Top 15 years ago...
I was wondering what that looked like before the Station Fire, and this photo is exactly what I wanted to see. Thanks. How far below Granite did the trees extend to? Did Rabbit have pines on it? In any case, the young 15-year-old pines are doing well, and are already decently tall.
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HikeUp
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Post by HikeUp »

dima wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2024 12:01 am
HikeUp wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:12 pm So sad to see the trees on Granite and Round Top gone. Here's a picture of Granite taken from Round Top 15 years ago...
I was wondering what that looked like before the Station Fire, and this photo is exactly what I wanted to see. Thanks. How far below Granite did the trees extend to? Did Rabbit have pines on it? In any case, the young 15-year-old pines are doing well, and are already decently tall.
I got to Granite from the Mt Pacifico side and the road (that eventually goes south to Round Top) went through some trees (2007). The summit was forested but not densely...it was very easy to walk around between trees.

I did not have a camera back then. But when I was on Rabbit and Iron #3 I did (early 2009). Here are some pics from Rabbit (which had no trees). The trees on Granite didn't extend too far down the west side/ridge; there were some trees visible on the ridge between Granite and Round Top and some on Round Top (but not many)...

Granite (from Rabbit)...
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Ridge connecting Granite and Round Top (from Rabbit)...
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Round Top (from Rabbit)...
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Iron #3 and Rabbit from the south - no trees - (early 2009 on my way up to Round Top)...
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David R
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Post by David R »

Nobody mentioned the highlight of the hike, finding Cecelia's sunglasses. Nice to meet DN&M.
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Sean
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Post by Sean »

David R wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2024 9:30 am Nobody mentioned the highlight of the hike, finding Cecelia's sunglasses. Nice to meet DN&M.
That's the highlight of every hike with Cecelia.
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Girl Hiker
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Post by Girl Hiker »

That's right David I need those sunglasses. Hahaha!!!

The real highlight was meeting the owner of the mine!
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