EISPIRATEN

If anyone is interested in planning and executing a hike from Acorn Trial in Wrightwood, do Wright Mnt, Pine, Dawson, Bldy, W.Bldy, Iron, South Mt Hawinks, Hawkins, Throop Pk, Burnham and Baden Powell and come out at Vincent Gap, please email me.

I have mapped it out for distances and it's approximately 28.5 miles

I need some information from the group as to routes coming off Iron to the Narrows or any of the gulches below that have trails leading up to South Hawkins?

So far Ze, Zach and Liz have shown interest. Please let me know if anyone else would like to join us. I'm thinking mid March to get prepared and trained for this big of a hike.

Let me know.

Lilbitmo

Dayhike?

Count me in. I will drop you off at Point "A" and pick you up at Point "B".

Rick Kent wrote:Dayhike?

As quoted from Lilbitmo, sitting here in my office buggen me - "YES, dayhike"

Well now ... that's rather ambitious. Might be few survivors.

Hmmmm ... over 12000 feet of elevation gain. Nice.

Rick Kent wrote:Well now ... that's rather ambitious. Might be few survivors.

I hear a pint of water and two brazil nuts will practically guarantee success.

The hike from Wrightwood to Iron will be trying but very attainable, it's that wicked climb down to the river and back up to South Hawkins that may kill the lot of us? From there to the Vincent Gap shouldn't be to bad either, it's that drop and regain that will do the trick.

lilbitmo wrote:The hike from Wrightwood to Iron will be trying but very attainable, it's that wicked climb down to the river and back up to South Hawkins that may kill the lot of us? From there to the Vincent Gap shouldn't be to bad either, it's that drop and regain that will do the trick.

Is there a shuttle? Tram? donkey?

I am totally in. We should definitely cache food and water ahead of time to decrease the amount of weight we'd have to carry and to save on time (pumping and filtering water). From Iron Mountain we should try going down Clark Gulch to the narrows and then up iron fork to S. Mt Hawkins.

Zach, if you have knowledge of that area below Iron and back up to S. Hawkins please send me any maps, trip reports, GPS information you have.

Are you still going with us to the Bridge Sat? If so we can do a little scouting of that area.

Bill in Wrightwood would like to come along as well, he lives in Wrightwood which will really help us in that we can park at or near his house to start the trip. I'm ok with doing this in either direction as well.

Let's keep talking until we have a definite plan.

lilbitmo

yes, i am coming saturday. it would be a good idea to scout. my experience is very limited beyond the bridge, I've been up to the narrows but nothing really beyond that. i was looking at the iron fork as a possible way to get to South Mt. Hawkins. If we came off iron from what i believe is clark gulch (if this is even possible) on the map, we'd be right next to the Iron Fork split of the san gabriel river and if we followed that north-west, then took the South Fork when it splits further up, we'd be right below SMH. A bit of scrambling and we'd be there. Again, I'm not sure as to how feasible it is. I've been through Allison Gulch and if Clark is anything like Allison its going to be pretty wicked. Clark Gulch does look a lot wider though (at least on the map) and might have an old miner's trail we could descend on.

Let's go as far as we can Sat up the canyon to where we can see the split from East Fork and past the narrows to where the Iron Fork comes into the East Fork - it's the gulleys to the East that we could take down and the ridgeline to the West that we have to determine how speep they are.

See you Sat

Congratulations, gentlemen (and Liz), you have earned the coveted SGMDF "you're frickin' out of your mind" award just for even thinking about this hike.

Now, I personally think that you've lost your marbles, but if I were to map out a plan, it might go something like this.

A = The highest point on Acorn Dr where it is legal to park (just past Finch). You'll have to walk the rest of the way to the trail head (no biggie).
B = The point the dirt road stops and the trail begins. Here your route leaves the canyon bottom and ascends to climb the ridge on the E side of Acorn Canyon.
C = the point you hit the Blue Ridge Road. About 15 (20?) feet before you hit the road, you'll cross the PCT. Take the PCT E to the top of Wright Mtn.
D = The summit of Wright Mtn. You'll have to leave the PCT to get to the actual summit once you're on top of Wright. Wright isn't much of a mountain. It's so flat on top that you'll think you're just out in a field.
E = The trailhead for Pine, Dawson, and Baldy. From the summit of Wright, head down the obvious south ridge to "E".
F = Pine Mtn. As I recall, you have to leave the trail to get to the summit.
G = Dawson Pk. Again, you have to leave the trail but not by much.
H = "Heartbreak" saddle. You'll lose a lot of elevation to get here (hence the heartbreak). From here you climb the steep N face of Baldy.
I = Summit of Baldy. Obviously, this is a good bail out point since you could go down the ski hut trail or DBB trail to Manker Flats.
J = Summit of W Baldy. You could use the Bear Flats trail to bail out, but you might be better off going back to Baldy and using the bail out routes there.
K = Summit of Pt 7903. I mention this only because it is a bail out point -- if you're desperate enough. I saw a TR of two guys that bailed out here and went down Coldwater Canyon to get down into the E Fork area. The route was pretty gnarly. Oh, and that trail you see on the map just below Pt 7903. Fuggit about it. Ain't there no more.
L = Summit of Iron. You could bail out here by heading down the standard route to Heaton Flats. By no means an easy bail out. Now from here to the E Fork is not my area of expertise. When I've read other TR's, they've talked about taking a ridge. I believe the ridge they're talking about is the ridge between Falls Gulch and Clark Gulch, but I could be wrong.
M = A random point on the aforementioned ridge to just to mark the way.
N = Another random point on the aforementioned ridge just to mark the way.
O = Where said ridge hits the E Fork. Proceed downstream from "O" to Iron Fork. You could bail out at any point along the E Fork by simply walking down stream to Heaton Flats (the "Bridge to Nowhere" route).
P = Confluence of Iron Fork and E Fork. From here, rather than going up Iron Fork, I'd probably hop up the ridge leading to S Hawkins. A firebreak is shown on the map on the upper section, but who knows what condition it's in now. Could be serious brush or ? Satellite photo shows some promise but who knows?
Q = The top of the small ridge that I would use to gain the ridge leading to S Hawkins. I would go straight up from "P" to "Q."
R = Random point on the ridge just to mark the way.
S = S Mt. Hawkins. Normally I'd say you could bail out by going down the dirt road to the Crystal Lake area, but since the Crystal Lake area is closed, I'm not so sure.
T = Middle Hawkins (also known as "Sadie Hawkins"). This isn't mentioned in your route plan, but heck this is nothing compared to many of the others, and you may as well bag it while your there. From here you could bail out to Islip Saddle.
U = Mt Hawkins. From here you could bail out to Islip Saddle.
V = Throop Pk. From here you could bail out to Islip Saddle or you could take the trail down to Dawson saddle and walk to Islip Saddle or possibly even Vincent Gap. Be aware of bridge construction just W of Vincent gap on ACH.
W = Mt Burnham
X = Mt Baden Powell
Y = Vincent Gap trailhead and hopefully that car shuttle you did remember to arrange.

Just my thoughts.

Disclaimer: I've never descended that ridge from W Baldy to Iron to E Fork, and I've never ascended from E Fork to S Hawkins. I selected the route based somewhat on my recall of other TR's and mainly on the topo map.

I would go, but I have these things called "knees", and they tend to "not work" after stuff like that. Having done one previous, if far easier, 30 mile hike to Mt Islip before, I'm out.

You people are crazy.

Zach wrote:I am totally in. We should definitely cache food and water ahead of time to decrease the amount of weight we'd have to carry and to save on time (pumping and filtering water). From Iron Mountain we should try going down Clark Gulch to the narrows and then up iron fork to S. Mt Hawkins.

That's an excellent idea for weaklings. I on the other hand will use the fishhooks concealed in the handle of my combat knife to catch fish. Then rub the fish together to create fire and boil stream water.

Hikin_Jim wrote:A = The highest point on Acorn Dr where it is legal to park (just past Finch). You'll have to walk the rest of the way to the trail head (no biggie).

Forget it now. I ain't walken to no trail head.

I'll be waiten to direct Search and Rescue where yous all at.

I am imaging that the descent from Iron will take a while. That ridge (or wherever Augie ascended) has a bunch of class 3 from what I recall reading so it would take 4 hrs to get down.

Up that ridge to S Mt Hawkins, who knows how long due to terrain.

12,000 ft sounds like a good 12-14 hr affair normally. 12,000 with San Antonio Ridge, north ridge of Iron, and souteast ridge of S Hawkins, who knows!

Seriously, if you guys make it that for Saturday, I'd like to know if there's any feasible way to ascend to Ross mt from below.

This is not happening until Mid March, we need to scope out that canyon, the descent from Iron and the ascent up to South Hawkins.

If I need to go hike Iron to see the difficulty I will but Dave G and Norma just did this hike a week ago, so I'm going to reread their post to see time frames and ask questions.

Man, I'd love to read the TR from this trip!

I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm not sure how feasible this route is. If it is, this would truly be EPIC and I'm not talking about a RED camera The north ridge to Iron is seldom climbed and probably never descended and Augie lists it as the toughest hike in the whole San Gabriels. He climbed it as a two-day and said

Did I mention that this route is committing? I would not want to descend it and can only imagine a downclimb to be a very intense experience. If you did retreat, you would still have the 8 or 9 miles back out along the river to the trailhead. You simply have to get to the top once you embark on this route.

Looking at the topo, the ascent from the East Fork to either S. Hawkins or Ross doesn't look too friendly either but hey you guys are after a challenge

Well then, if this turns out to be too gnarley for one day, lets do an overnight. I just want to get out there and do it!

Zach wrote:Well then, if this turns out to be too gnarley for one day, lets do an overnight. I just want to get out there and do it!

No Sleeping bags, just bivy sacs.

My own thoughts are that first I would be truly impressed to see anyone successfully complete this in under 24 hours. I don't know the skill of those considering this but it may be about the hardest hike in the San Gabriels ever conceived. Second, I have serious doubts about descending from Iron to the Narrows and then up some other ridge or canyon especially in an area where the brush is so dense. Seems like lunacy to me. Doing it over 2 or 3 days would certainly be more reasonable ... but that does not interest me. I think one of the things that I find appealing about this proposition is being able to tag Baldy, Iron, and Baden-Powell all in the same day and in one hike. Has anyone ever tagged all 3 of these in the same day? That alone is quite a challenge and certainly noteable.

Lacking information on the unknown region of this route if I were to do this hike I would likely descend Iron via the Heaton Flats trail, cross over and climb up to the road to nowhere and then ascend the "trail" to Rattlesnake Peak. From there one could then conceivably descend to the NW and then up the ridge to S Hawkins. It's not clear how dense the brush there will be but I would expect some difficulty. This variation has the benefit of using existing trails though it obviously adds at least a few more miles to the journey. Even better it adds in an additional peak.

Also, my estimate of 12,000 feet of gain only took into account the obvious gains. I would suspect the total gain may be closer to 14,000 feet. The climb up from Heaton Flat or the Narrows all the way up to Baden-Powell after having done Baldy and the Iron-Baldy traverse would be truly epic.

-Rick

Whether it's a day hike or an overnighter, I'm still considering this. I'll be the brave chick! I'd rather just push and do it in under 24 ours. It wold be my toughest day on the trail yet, and I LOVE challenges.

Come on, EnFuego- Suck it up and come hike with us!

Rick Kent wrote:Lacking information on the unknown region of this route if I were to do this hike I would likely descend Iron via the Heaton Flats trail, cross over and climb up to the road to nowhere and then ascend the "trail" to Rattlesnake Peak. From there one could then conceivably descend to the NW and then up the ridge to S Hawkins. It's not clear how dense the brush there will be but I would expect some difficulty. This variation has the benefit of using existing trails though it obviously adds at least a few more miles to the journey. Even better it adds in an additional peak.

I've been on a portion of the NW ridge to S. Hawkins from Rattlesnake and visually the ridge does look passable. I'm not familiar with the area beyond S. Hawkins so no info there. I've also done the Manker to Baldy to Iron traverse and it boggles my mind at the thought of descending to Heaton Flats, climbing Rattlesnake and continuing on to S. Hawkins, Hawkins, Throop, Burnham, and Baden-Powell then descending to Vincent Gap. But I think this route is more feasible that trying to XC off the north side of Iron and then clawing your way up one of the canyons from the Narrows. For one thing, XC is inherently slow.

Im still in my own camp of the west ridge of Twin Peaks being the hardest hike.

I dont understand the time estimate of 12 hrs w/ a 4 hr Iron descent? That leaves 2 hours to go from Wrightwood to Iron?

If I were planning it, I would descend Iron via the SW ridge and then take its west ridge down to near Devils Gulch(or book it down to the saddle and then down Allison). Then I would go up the S.Hawkins ridge. But again, Ive never hiked those ridges...especially considering unknown March conditions.

Heres a picture of S.Hawkins ridge...note: this area was burned a couple years ago. There could still easily be brush above the burn area, but eventually it will ease.

Lilbitmo,


Within the coming weeks we should definitely try the Baldy to Iron via SA ridge, the "impossible" downclimb into the narrows and if not on the same trip, hike the narrows to SMH via the ridge or the fork of the SG river, which hopefully we will determine on our hike this weekend.


I'm down for day hikes or we can do an overnighter, whichever works.

Looks like the route via Heaton Flats would be at least 36 miles or perhaps a little more. The biggest challenge descending to Heaton Flat is that once you get down there it will take an extreme amount of mental fortitude to continue on knowing whats left ahead of you.

Rick Kent wrote: I think one of the things that I find appealing about this proposition is being able to tag Baldy, Iron, and Baden-Powell all in the same day and in one hike. Has anyone ever tagged all 3 of these in the same day? That alone is quite a challenge and certainly noteable.

hmm I like that idea

Vincent Gap to Baden-Powell ~3000 ft
Descend baden-powell to East fork (not sure where of if this is feasible,)
take east fork to mine gulch / beginning of pine mountain NW ridge
ascend ridge to pine mt 5000 ft
take north backbone trail to Baldy 1500 ft
take San Antonio Ridge to Iron 2000
Descend to Heaton Flats 500 ft

~12000 quick approximation.