Mission Pt via Bee Canyon
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:09 am
Mission Point an LPC peak just above Granada Hills is a delightful training hike that most people start from O'Melveny Park the second largest park in LA behind Griffith. I have four different ways that I ascend this route which all avail from the south grassy ridge.
I had heard of a route that instead goes through Bee Canyon to the east and ascends the steep east slopes to the fire road coming from Santa Clarita. I decided this Sunday to give this route a try. The beginning of the use trail through Bee Canyon begins innocuously enough with a nice use trail. This ends suddenly with the use trail heading up the side of the east canyon and disappearing.
At this point you hop into the canyon and more or less bushwhack your way through deadfall and various different growing things. As I got further up the canyon it narrowed and a small stream flow began. This became more problematic as the canyon got narrower and there was no where to walk other then in midstream through the muck and water. The quantity of vegetation also began to worsen and I had to go through a particularly nasty thicket of stinging nettles that I'm still feeling today. I finally reached a point about 1/4 of a mile before where I thought I should exit the canyon and climb the slopes. In front of me was a swamp with poison oak seemingly everywhere. I decided that this route was for people with stronger stomachs then myself and decided to turn around.
On the way back I decided to try and hike out of the watershed proper and go on the east side of the canyon where I found animal trails that allowed me to skip having to bushwhack through the worst of what I came through. As the canyon narrowed I dropped back into the canyon and reached a spot just after where the main use trail had ended. I noticed a small climb up out of the west canyon and thought maybe this will allow me access to a ridge that will take me up to Mission Point. This small use trail climbed steeply about fifty feet and seemingly ended. I decided to continue up and was rewarded with small animal paths continuing upwards. I reached a loose dirt steep slope where I pulled myself up using vegetation and was on the main ridge with a much better footing.
This ridge was blissfully free of significant vegetation other then trees in certain spots. The animal trails continued to provide me with good tread and direction. The ridge gradually curved from a north direction to the east. As I headed up I had to sometimes leave the animal tracks and climb higher up the ridge where I would find a new animal track that would help me in navigating the grasses. I finally reached a point where I could see clearly a transmission tower and headed towards it. This was a fortunate move on my part as I didn't realize that there was a rusty barbed wire fence that used to be used for livestock in this area enclosing the section I was hiking in. When I reached the tower the barbed wire had been trampled down and was easily crossed. From there a steep fire road led me up to the main fire road and the ridge right where the first gate is located just north of Mission Point. A quick 1/4 mile jaunt on the fire road brought me to the top. The wind was blowing something ferocious at this time but it wasn't too cold so I sheltered myself behind the stone block on the top and enjoyed the view solo from the top. I then took the Grotto/Grasslands trail back down to the parking lot.
A nice adventure in civilized O'Melveny park. I will definitely use this as an alternate route in the future as it is a marked improvement on continuing up Bee Canyon and other then the steepness in some places is pretty brush free for a rarely if ever human travelled route.
I had heard of a route that instead goes through Bee Canyon to the east and ascends the steep east slopes to the fire road coming from Santa Clarita. I decided this Sunday to give this route a try. The beginning of the use trail through Bee Canyon begins innocuously enough with a nice use trail. This ends suddenly with the use trail heading up the side of the east canyon and disappearing.
At this point you hop into the canyon and more or less bushwhack your way through deadfall and various different growing things. As I got further up the canyon it narrowed and a small stream flow began. This became more problematic as the canyon got narrower and there was no where to walk other then in midstream through the muck and water. The quantity of vegetation also began to worsen and I had to go through a particularly nasty thicket of stinging nettles that I'm still feeling today. I finally reached a point about 1/4 of a mile before where I thought I should exit the canyon and climb the slopes. In front of me was a swamp with poison oak seemingly everywhere. I decided that this route was for people with stronger stomachs then myself and decided to turn around.
On the way back I decided to try and hike out of the watershed proper and go on the east side of the canyon where I found animal trails that allowed me to skip having to bushwhack through the worst of what I came through. As the canyon narrowed I dropped back into the canyon and reached a spot just after where the main use trail had ended. I noticed a small climb up out of the west canyon and thought maybe this will allow me access to a ridge that will take me up to Mission Point. This small use trail climbed steeply about fifty feet and seemingly ended. I decided to continue up and was rewarded with small animal paths continuing upwards. I reached a loose dirt steep slope where I pulled myself up using vegetation and was on the main ridge with a much better footing.
This ridge was blissfully free of significant vegetation other then trees in certain spots. The animal trails continued to provide me with good tread and direction. The ridge gradually curved from a north direction to the east. As I headed up I had to sometimes leave the animal tracks and climb higher up the ridge where I would find a new animal track that would help me in navigating the grasses. I finally reached a point where I could see clearly a transmission tower and headed towards it. This was a fortunate move on my part as I didn't realize that there was a rusty barbed wire fence that used to be used for livestock in this area enclosing the section I was hiking in. When I reached the tower the barbed wire had been trampled down and was easily crossed. From there a steep fire road led me up to the main fire road and the ridge right where the first gate is located just north of Mission Point. A quick 1/4 mile jaunt on the fire road brought me to the top. The wind was blowing something ferocious at this time but it wasn't too cold so I sheltered myself behind the stone block on the top and enjoyed the view solo from the top. I then took the Grotto/Grasslands trail back down to the parking lot.
A nice adventure in civilized O'Melveny park. I will definitely use this as an alternate route in the future as it is a marked improvement on continuing up Bee Canyon and other then the steepness in some places is pretty brush free for a rarely if ever human travelled route.
