The Baldy area can be so crowded on the weekends so to find some tranquility and solitude, I decided to explore a new area. An old hiking buddy of mine always tells me a story about how how some scientist figured out the speed of light by using mirrors from a peak in the Baldy area and Mt Wilson. He had heard that you can access it from Bear Flats. So I had two goals today .... avoid the crowds and explore some new area and MAYBE bag this peak.
Hiked up from the village to Bear Flats. And then followed an old trail from Bear Flats through a very surprisingly lush and scenic forest. This area IMO has to be in my top 5 scenic canyons in the Gabriels. I lost the trail for a bit but after climbing to a saddle and traversing the ridge south found the trail again. As I was nearing the top I started seeing more debris and a more established trail.
I summited and then was surprised to find that I was not alone. A lady who I had passed near the village who briefly mentioned that she was going to LookOut Peak had come up a different route. I had not know the name of the peak and I most defintely did not think that we would see each other again. She showed me on a map and also with her pointer finger the way she had come up. Signed in at the register (about 2 dozen a year) and had a nice lunch.
There is quite a bit of debris from the decades gone by structures. Actually in one of the saddles 300 yrds North of the summit in a pile of rocks I found a soup can with some hand made glass/prism like things in it but a closed end??????. I'll post some pictures later for anyone to try and to figure out what it was used for.
Went straight down from the summit and hit a fire break that this women mentioned and then at a saddle followed her old track and ended up hitting the creek near where the upper houses are on BF trail. The woman continued to hike the ridge and ended up at Cow Saddle.
The whole trek was much more scenic and lush then I imagined. The canyons were not windy at all and ridges were tolerable. Highlight of the day was enojying a long moment looking at the scenery with one big horn sheep.
After returning home I noticed that the Sierra Club 100 peaks website mentions all three ways to the summit LookOut Peak. I highly recommend this peak and think that my loop was ideal. The trek up is much longer but much less steep and more lush. The descent was steep with scree and until you got into the canyon with the creek was exposed and filled with chaparel. Was pretty pleased also with my timing considering I am still recovering from a bad sinus infection - just 4 1/2 hrs almost 3000 ft gain and in total about 8 miles.
Great day in the wildlands.
D
Look Out Peak
Lookout Mtn. #2 certainly has an interesting history. I did a write up of it for SummitPost http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... ain-2.html. I did the route from Cow Canyon Saddle but I'd like to do your route. Sounds beautiful.
I also enjoyed lookout Mountain, but we hiked it from Cow Canyon Saddle, you can see the Google Map and download GPS track here,
http://www.gpsmountaineering.com/lookou ... sunsetpeak
http://www.gpsmountaineering.com/lookou ... sunsetpeak
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EManBevHills
- Posts: 387
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I was under the impression that the experiment was conducted from Idyllwild....
I also read that the speed of light test was conducted between mount Wilson and Lookout, and there are three foundations present the supposably mounted the mirror.EManBevHills wrote:I was under the impression that the experiment was conducted from Idyllwild....
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EManBevHills
- Posts: 387
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:40 am
Thought I saw a sign near the Idyllwild ranger station saying something akin to this -- which I found on a Dogpile search:
"This Historical Marker is located in a residential area near Idyllwild, CA., commemorating the Speed of Light experiment."
Maybe it's semantics. Part on Mt Wilson, part on Lookout, part in Idyllwild?
"This Historical Marker is located in a residential area near Idyllwild, CA., commemorating the Speed of Light experiment."
Maybe it's semantics. Part on Mt Wilson, part on Lookout, part in Idyllwild?
In 1926, Michelson used a rotating prism to measure the time it took light to make a round trip from Mount Wilson to Mount San Antonio in California, a distance of about 22 miles. The precise measurements yielded a speed of 186,285 miles per second (299,796 kilometres per second).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
It looks like the data is not clear regarding what mountains this occured on, I got my info from here: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/hps/signatures/15e.htmRob wrote:In 1926, Michelson used a rotating prism to measure the time it took light to make a round trip from Mount Wilson to Mount San Antonio in California, a distance of about 22 miles. The precise measurements yielded a speed of 186,285 miles per second (299,796 kilometres per second).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
"This peak is also the site for one of the most important scientific experiments ever conducted in our mountains: the exact measurement of the velocity of light. Albert Abraham Michelson (1852-1931), first American winner of the Nobel Prize (Physics, 1907) accurately calbibrated the journey between a mirror mounted on a USGS bench mark named "Michelson" on Mount Wilson and another VABM named "Antonio" on this peak (Mount Lookout #2)."
Apparently Michelson had many speed of light experiments over 50 years, from US Naval Academy to Irvine Ranch:
Following this series, Michelson endeavored to try with the same equipment a series of experiments over a path from Mt. Wilson Observatory to Mt. San Jacinto, a distance of about 82 miles, or roughly 131 Km. However, because of bad atmospheric conditions, the experiments were abandon and the initial results obtained were not considered reliable enough for publication.
http://www.setterfield.org/000docs/cx4.html
Following this series, Michelson endeavored to try with the same equipment a series of experiments over a path from Mt. Wilson Observatory to Mt. San Jacinto, a distance of about 82 miles, or roughly 131 Km. However, because of bad atmospheric conditions, the experiments were abandon and the initial results obtained were not considered reliable enough for publication.
http://www.setterfield.org/000docs/cx4.html
