Managed to find a parking spot near the entrance to Sam Merrill trl,- now known as the 405 trl for its weekend overuse and with a hope of hitching a ride to Pinecrest rd gate for the trek up the toll rd to Henninger Flats. A nice hiking couple offered to drop me off as they were going towards Pasadena after they were finished with their morning walk.
I entered through the penitentiary gate; whats up with all the ornamental barb wire on the fence? I started walking on the Mount Wilson Toll Rd, passed the bridge, a quick stare towards the freak show canyon and then started the uphill trek to the top. The propped up slide is holding on ok for now but with a severe storm who knows when another closure will happen. " tells us how much they spend to prop and clean this slide, mountain- vulture- man?"...
The traffic was lite for late morn time and in less than 50 min I was at the top only to be greeted by a bunch of people wearing vibes shoes and exercising.
Loaded up some water and moved on up the toll rd towards Wilson for the Idllehour trailhead. I got on the trl and started my 1.5 mile descend to the camp as looked up I noticed the familiar tall antenna on top of Wilson,Occi Pk,Gabriell and Markham mts. Soon I arrived to a desolate but someone was here camp. The stoves looked like in new condition and were ready to be used for cooking. The whispering noise of the water running down the steam and the crunching of the yellow sycamore tree leaves that were scattered all over the trail as it crossed near the trees and the appearance of a few bugs made you glad you there on this warm,sunny,fall day all by your self. Soon the ascend towards Inspiration Point got rid of the bugs but another bug appeared to have landed on my wrist, a tick!, first of the season for me. The cool, shady zigidy-zagy trail ascended past couple streams and around a boulder to reveal Mt Lowe in your view. More uphill trek as I saw the fire rd and the trail going up to Lowe, the 3miler to Inspiration was almost over after I took a short cut up a gully and soon I was siting on the bench having a snack before the downhill trek from Castle cyn to Sam Merrill and back to the car on Lake Av.
Another enjoyable fall trek on the Wilson south side area....