Pleasant View Ridge, C-119, C-46a

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
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dima
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Location: Los Angeles

Post by dima »

David Martin and his wife are about to go to Asia for a while, and I wanted to drag them out to see a plane crash before they left. Mission accomplished.

We went to see the C-119 on Pleasant View ridge (the previous report). And I wanted to get the extra credit of seeing the C-46a tail again (the previous report). The last time I was here was before the Bobcat Fire, and I wanted to see how these sites did.

We came up the PCT from the West. It's in good shape, and there were some trail builders cleaning it up even more. This area burned, but not too bad:

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Once up on the ridge, there are a few bumps to descend and climb

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The poodle-dog are doing real well in a few spots, but it's easy to avoid

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The C-119 is visible eventually

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And once on top, the fire damage becomes more visible. In a few areas absoultely everything was destroyed

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The C-119 area near the ridge top wasn't hit too bad, and it looks as it did before.

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The C-46a tail area was hit pretty hard, despite it being super steep and containing sparse trees. It now looks like this:

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The tree that was holding it up burned, and is no longer attached to the ground. So the tail slid down, and is now resting on another tree. This burned too, but is still attached; for now.

And we found a botanical mystery. What's going on with this pine tree?

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Nate U
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Post by Nate U »

This TR makes me want to be sure I make it up into the high country this summer!
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JeffH
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Post by JeffH »

Good finds in this excursion.
That looks like mistletoe to me. Unusual for it to grow in a pine, it's more frequent in deciduous trees.
"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
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Taco
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Post by Taco »

Yep, Mistletoe.
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Sean
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Post by Sean »

Thanks for the report and pictures. Glad to see the old junk is still up there. When are you going to push it over the side and ride it into the punchbowl?

Wreck surfing.
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RH
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Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2013 4:03 pm

Post by RH »

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Excellent TR and pics! That is a great hike and glad to see the burns didn't totally wipe it.

I remember first doing that trip in 2012 after I had only been a hiker for a year or so (and mostly Griffith Park and Santa Monica Mtns). My team stopped about 0.3 mile before reaching it because they were tired and it was getting late in the afternoon. I asked them to wait while I jogged the ridge to try to find the C119. I made it there, took some pics and then jogged back.

Long story short... it was not smart on my part. I bonked for the first time ever and struggled mightily getting back up Williamson. My friends debated leaving me to go get help because I couldn't hike more than 50' without sitting down for several minutes. We all eventually made it back to the car around 9:00pm. That hike changed my hiking. Soon after I bought a Delorme inReach SE, began eating a bigger pre-hike meal, started carrying GU endurance powder in my pack instead of just water, and began carrying better snacks.

But I returned again in 2017 and 2018 to visit the C-46 sections down the other slope and had no issues.
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