EISPIRATEN

I had been wanting to do this one for a long time, finally got around to it on Saturday. The peak itself is nothing extraordinary, in fact it's not really even a peak in its own right, just one of a series of bumps on Baldy's enormous south ridge. However, the views from the top, the challenges of getting up there, and a couple of impressive historical notes make the trip well worth it.


Upper West Fork of Bear Canyon

Lookout Mountain was the site of the first lookout tower in Southern California in the early 1900s. More noteworthy, though, is that it was also the location of the parabolic mirror in Albert Michelson's experiments measuring the speed of light. Only the stone supports remain (not even a plaque? Come on...), but its still pretty cool to sit there and look across the same line of sight where such a critical constant was first accurately measured.


Line of Sight from Michelson's Experiments

We decided to combine the two standard routes into a loop totaling about 7.75 miles, heading up the West Fork of Bear Canyon from Bear Flat and then down the firebreak route to Cow Canyon saddle.

I won't go into great detail on the route but solid route finding skills and good trail sense are essential on this hike. There are stretches of an easy to follow path, but there are also long stretches with none at all and it's not always obvious where to go.

The firebreak route down the south ridge is also in pretty rough shape, completely washed out in spots, and it'd be easy to end up in the thick stuff if you don't do your homework beforehand.

Some more pics:


Baldy from Lookout Mountain


Local Resident


Three T's


Route Details

Whole set of photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wattifoto/ ... 298527944/

Cheers 8)

Wow! That's a really awesome history lesson. I had no clue Michelson ever did work in california. I remember reading about him and the michelson-morley experiment back in one of my physics lectures. Thanks for the info.

Something about knowing the history surrounding where you hike/climb makes it that much more special. It's sad that there's nothing up there to mark those experiments.

More about the experiments here:

http://www.setterfield.org/000docs/cx4.html#MTA

Great day out there...
Do you think it would be easier to reverse your route, going up via Cow Canyon Saddle? Would it keep most folks out of the brush?

Nice hike, cool pics and info.

An alternate route down from (or up to) the peak is shown in blue below...


Previous TR's...
3-28-2009 and 2007

JeffH wrote: ↑Great day out there...
Do you think it would be easier to reverse your route, going up via Cow Canyon Saddle? Would it keep most folks out of the brush?

Yeah, I think the most common way up Lookout is that out-and-back from Cow Canyon Saddle. It is washed out in spots and a little hard to follow towards the top, but it probably is the easiest in terms of navigation.

I'd still highly recommend making it a loop though. The scenery and solitude in Upper Bear Canyon are well worth the bushwacking and routefinding required.

HikeUp wrote: ↑Nice hike, cool pics and info.

An alternate route down from (or up to) the peak is shown in blue below...

Previous TR's...
3-28-2009 and 2007

Nice, those reports are spot-on. I wasn't aware of the route from the saddle down to the Village that you marked in blue.... Is that the "Erv Bartel" canyon referred to on the Sierra Club site? Definitely would have gone that way to avoid the Cow Canyon bit and walking back down the road to the Village. Going to check it out next time.

mcphersonm80 wrote: ↑
Nice, those reports are spot-on. I wasn't aware of the route from the saddle down to the Village that you marked in blue.... Is that the "Erv Bartel" canyon referred to on the Sierra Club site? Definitely would have gone that way to avoid the Cow Canyon bit and walking back down the road to the Village. Going to check it out next time.

Yup that's the one. Here's a gps track with that route. Was a nice descent route.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=182543

Zé wrote: ↑

mcphersonm80 wrote: ↑
Nice, those reports are spot-on. I wasn't aware of the route from the saddle down to the Village that you marked in blue.... Is that the "Erv Bartel" canyon referred to on the Sierra Club site? Definitely would have gone that way to avoid the Cow Canyon bit and walking back down the road to the Village. Going to check it out next time.

Yup that's the one. Here's a gps track with that route. Was a nice descent route.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=182543

heh My next question was going to ask the best way to combine this with Baldy...

As Zé affirmed, that is the HPS route #3.

I descended straight off the peak down towards the saddle at 5480', bypassing the upper part of the 'trail' you took. It is steep class 2 at worst. Once at the saddle I ended up in a small clearing surround by 8' high bushes with no apparent exit except back up towards the peak. I pushed my way through to the east and it opened up immediately into "Erv Bartel" canyon - a nice wide open and steep cyn. straight down to the creek. kind of a pain in the ass to cross the creek but pick n choose your way across. Once back on the trail I turned around and had a hard time seeing where I had just come from (i.e. it isn't obvious where to leave the trail in order to ascend the cyn.).

Great report!

I did the simple up and back from Cow Canyon last year specifically to improve my route finding. There is a faint use trail all the way but you have to pay attention. I remember the gain being pretty stiff for a short hike.

I didn't know about the other approaches.

It's been a couple of years since I was last on Lookout, thought I read somewhere that Sunset Peak was also involved in the light/speed experiments.
It always surprises me how much history is in our mountains.

P