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5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 10:32 pm
by MattCav
got out to all of the aforementioned today via the mt lowe fire road. beautiful weather, not too many people out until the evening. saw some animal prints plus some sort of toad (identification?) near inspiration point. mueller tunnel has a gnarly landslide on the southwest (?) side of it, sadly, as seen in the pics in the tr. also couldn't find a trail for markham. anyone ever been up to markham?
lots and lots and lots of animal tracks on mt lowe fire road. i took some pics... cougar, deer, and bear i'm a guessing?
total distance was 22.5 miles, approx 6000' gain by my garmin. TR is here:
http://pasadenahiker.wordpress.com/2011 ... fire-road/
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 10:13 am
by Hikin_Jim
Matt:
There's not really a trail per se up Markham. You just make your best route up the ridge from Lowe-Markham Saddle. There's kind of a use trail in sections, but I'm sure that the use trail is really hard to distinguish right now due to fire and road closures.
HJ
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:52 am
by MattCav
thanks jim. is markham worth summiting?
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 2:45 pm
by Hikin_Jim
MattCav wrote: ↑thanks jim. is markham worth summiting?
It's pretty easy to bag, so yes, I'd say it's worth bagging. From Eaton Saddle, Markham, Lowe, San Gabriel, and Disappointment are all pretty easy to bag. Also Occidental, but I didn't find Occidental to be particularly interesting.
Markham is very narrow on top, like a razor blade turned on edge, and it's east face is basically a cliff. Nothing spectacular, but interesting nonetheless.
HJ
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 9:06 am
by VermillionPearlGirl
I definitely saw bear tracks when I was up in the same area a couple weeks ago.
This hike is kind of epic. I do Echo often in the morning before work (also live in Pasadena) but this is kind of inspiring to keep going up. I've done a lot of that area from Eaton Saddle but never up from Lake. Very cool!
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 7:49 pm
by Mike P
MattCav wrote: ↑ ... saw some animal prints plus some sort of toad (identification?)...
Hi Matt, nice meeting you the other day at the store!
That "toad" is actually the Coast Horned Lizard (
Phrynosoma blainvillii) It's nice to see them in the fire zone!
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 9:42 am
by MattCav
Hi Matt, nice meeting you the other day at the store!
That "toad" is actually the Coast Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma blainvillii) It's nice to see them in the fire zone!
Thanks Mike. Great meeting you this past week too! Did that spray stuff fix your Precip?
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 6:41 pm
by cougarmagic
Great pics Matt. That's a nice trip! Loved the cougar track - makes me happy to see that in the "burn area". (I haven't seen many yet)
Also, I don't think I've seen horned lizards in the San Gabriels yet, burn or no burn (although I know other people have). They're just so awesome looking.
Re: 5.25.11 - lake ave to echo, i.p., muir, mueller tunnel, lowe
Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 9:27 pm
by MattCav
hey cm! so that was def a cougar track right?
and i agree, that lizard was way cool. i'd never seen one before!