EISPIRATEN

I am working on hiking all of the HPS peaks of the San Gabriels and am getting close to having hiked them all,

I still have not climbed Mount Pacifico or Mount Gleason, and it is important to me to actually hike these peaks, not just drive up and walk a couple hundred yards.

Any recommendation on decent hiking routes for these peak? I would prefer decent elevation gain and mileage.

thanks,

Travis

I've hiked to Pacifico via the PCT from Mill Creek Picnic area. It's just shy of 6 miles one way and about 2200' gain along a well graded, good conditioned trail. Very easy and pleasant hike with nice views to the north. Don't be surprised to see car campers on the peak. The road is closed during the winter I believe, so the peak will be less crowded then.

For the return leg of the hike, I took the road back and made an easy side trip over to Granite Mt. #1. Round Top could easily be added (an additional 4 miles round trip I think).

The walk down the road from Granite to Mill Creek Parking lot is a boring slog and will leave you searching for cross-country routes.

I too am curious about an interesting way to hike Gleason - I need to bag it too. I've read of people combining it with Fox, Condor and Iron. You could take the PCT from Mill Creek! Hmm...

HikeUp wrote:I too am curious about an interesting way to hike Gleason - I need to bag it too. I've read of people combining it with Fox, Condor and Iron. You could take the PCT from Mill Creek! Hmm...

Here is a good website detailing a hike to Mount Gleason,
http://www.modernhiker.dreamhosters.com ... t-gleason/

They also have a trip report for Mount Pacifico
http://www.modernhiker.dreamhosters.com ... -mountain/

I think that one of these weekend I am going to combine these hikes and climb both peaks.

Yes, I've read that guys TR's since he started blogging them. He tends to get off track (lost) too much for my liking but he does provide good info.

His trip up to Gleason seemed uninspiring, so I was hoping for another more interesting trip. Your combination of Pacifico and Gleason would make for a nice day with plenty of miles. I'm still intrigued by the idea (which I think I got from reading Bob Burd's TR's) of combining Fox, Condor, Iron and Gleason for an epic death march.

A couple of years ago, my son and I wanted to do Gleason, having seen it from various angles, but the hiking sounded uninspiring. We ended up doing it on a roughly 25 mile bicycle loop from the Highway 14 side. It was a nice ride with good views, but it was mostly fire roads. Mt. Gleason itself was indeed pretty uninspiring. I think one has to do take on something like the Bob Burd epic to make it truly interesting (in a classic death march sort of way).

If you left a car on Tujunga Canyon road at mile marker 4.50 drove up near Mount Gleason and hiked down, tagging Gleason, Iron, Condor and Fox on the way, it wouldn't be that hard. I would think reasonable elevation gain and less mileage than the loop.

If you did it in the reverse order (starting in Tujunga Canyon and hiking up to a car left near Mount Gleason) as a one-way hike it would likely qualify as a death march. More elevation gain than the loop (>6000 ft) but likley a little less mileage (<20 miles).

For Pacifico, one can take a kind of interesting hike from Alder Saddle.

To get to Alder Saddle, one drives up the ACH past Chilao to Three Points. One turns left on the Sulpher Springs/Santa Clara Divide Rd and drives past all the organizational camps to the vicinity of the Horse Flats Group Campground. Instead of turning left to go into the CG, keep going straight on the dirt road to Alder Saddle which is a fairly apparent saddle. Start hiking down the dirt road to the West from the saddle. Very quickly (50 yds?) you'll come to a major wash out. The wash out is impassable to cars, but still passable (as of a few months ago) on foot. Cross the washout and continue West. The road soon turns right (NNE), and comes to a fairly obvious drainage. One can see a use trail up the right side of the drainage at approximately UTM 11 406839E 3802857N (NAD27). Ascend the drainage to the ridge top, and join the PCT. Take the amiable PCT generally West to approx UTM 11 405052E 3804939N (NAD27), turn left and XC up the NNE ridge of Pacifico to the summit. This section of the ridge, albeit relatively short, is nice, fairly open, and has a lot of conifers. There are some really good views out into the desert along this ridge and from the NNW side of the summit. The North side of Pacifico is generally forested above 6500' and relatively people free (other than PCT through hikers in early season). Most people come up from Mill Cr. Summit. I've seen snow plant, lupine, and other beautiful "flowers" (yes I do know snow plant isn't exactly a flower) here in the spring.

To return from the summit, descend the main dirt road to the South, but at about UTM 11 405265E 3804335N (NAD27), leave the road and proceed on the remains of an old road SSE down a prominent ridge. The remains of the road fade away, and one more or less follows the SSE ridge back to the PCT, back to the use trail, back to the original dirt road, across the wash out, and back to your car at Alder Saddle. There's definitely going to be a bit of bushwhacking. I found that staying to the left of the SSE ridge kept me in a bit more navigable terrain and that the bush whacking really wasn't too bad.

This isn't exactly a hard core hike (8 miles RT?), but it's a fun alternative to driving up the road, stepping out of your car, and walking 10 paces to the top. The use of the Alder Saddle short cut eliminates a boring stretch of the PCT from Sulphur Springs. One also has a good deal more solitude on this route than routes from the West. Once you're on top, of course, solitude may not be the order of the day, although we had the place to ourselves recently on a Friday hike.

HJ

Travis: Did you do Pacifico this past Saturday? Just curious about how it went condtions, etc.

Hikin_Jim wrote:Travis: Did you do Pacifico this past Saturday? Just curious about how it went condtions, etc.

I never made it out, did a couple of short hikes with the family, from Chantry flats and Ernst Deb park, It can be hard juggling hiking, working and family

I completely understand. I had to turn around on my hike on Saturday at 10:30 AM in order to be back by 2:00 -- just when I was getting into the interesting stuff.

Well, try it some time. I think it's a good little route to keep your legs stretched out. Kind of pleasant on the back stretch of the PCT. Don't usually see a lot of folks back there.