EISPIRATEN

I read a quote by Bill Bowerman (the founder of Nike) that goes like this: There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people. So on that note I got out for a few hours this afternoon, I figured the rainy weather would scare off the softies
I had never been up to Echo Mountain, mainly because I had no interest in hiking up with typical crowd of rowdy teenagers and whining kids.
Only took 2 hours and on the way down the sun poked out and I got a few great shots of the sunset!







I was hesitant to post such a short TR but on the way down I could hear a bunch of sirens and shortly thereafter the LA Sheriff Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King rescue helicopter started flying just below the cloud layer right next to the mountain.

Then another 3 helicopters showed up and started patrolling right above Echo Mountain. Even had a LA Sheriff Eurocopter AS350 helicopter buzz right over me more than once. So I was wondering if anyone had any idea what was going on up there this evening...?

Oh and my hunch was right, I saw 1 hiker, 1 dog walker and 2 mountainbikers. Not bad for Echo Mountain trail.

I've been up to echo twice last year. It's a great place to go and explore the ruins and read a little history. (IF you can see through the graffeti)

I also wonder what all the activity was about. Sounds like something went wrong up there.

Where was that first shot taken? Up near the very top near the old bull wheels?

HJ

@Hikin_Jim - How did you guess The photo was taken by the really big rusty wheel.

rokclimbr wrote: ↑@Hikin_Jim - How did you guess The photo was taken by the really big rusty wheel.

Well, I've only done Echo about a million times. It's been a couple of weeks and I didn't recognize the blooms, but that cement work is pretty distinctive. Great spot, and a great short hike with views not to be underestimated, day -- or night.

HJ

Welcome to the world of Echo, rok. That was my main training ground when I moved out here and it is definitely a fun, relatively mild hike. If you go past Echo to Inspiration Point (and anything else, once it officially opens it [if FO is reading this]) you will find many more treasures in the different sub-climate zones and ecosystems. I'm glad the hike worked out so well. Hopefully no one got hurt up there yesterday.

According to the emergency log, there was a false alarm up near Echo regarding a down plane. Not much more details, but here's where I got that info.

http://www.wildcad.net/WCANF.htm

Whoa, that's crazy! Thanks for clearing that up Matt I'll bookmark that sight too.