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Big Potato Loop lots of pics

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:47 pm
by JeffH
Happy new year all.....
For the last 10 years I've gone for a new year hike, this year was epic on a small scale. I looked at the clouds covering the local high peaks and thought about the hordes of people driving up there and thought no way do I want any part of that mess. So I went to Potato Mountain, a prominent but small peak just above Padua Hills. To make it a bit harder, I went from home rather than driving to the Wilderness Park. I got to see plenty of terrain and lots of named trails and locations. I headed up to the Thompson Creek trail, went up Sycamore Canyon, cruised a bit through Johnson's Pasture, cut across the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park Burbank Canyon portion, turned onto Palmer Motorway and finally met up with the Palmer/Evey road. On the way back down I saw the Cobol Canyon section of CHWP and the rest of Thompson Creek trail.
My AllTrails app quit recording a little less than halfway up, so I laboriously plotted the whole route on Map My Run which calculated 16.6 miles and a little over 2400 feet of elevation gain. I figured it would be around 16 so that's close enough.


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Always good when the trails are open.


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The Sycamore Canyon trail was a big city project and I fear it won't last through too many wet seasons since drainage is poor.


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Junction to the Johnson's Pasture section. Left here goes toward Claraboya and beyond that to Webb Canyon.


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I took the lesser-used sections where I could, the Park Rangers always get upset if they spot people doing this. Picture looks over the CHWP, I also went up that very steep section on the left.


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Topping out on the highest point of CHWP, not part of the official route.


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Turning up the Palmer Motorway from CHWP.


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The stunning profile of Potato Mountain comes into view. I was happy that it was not in the clouds.


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Junction with the Palmer/Evey road that intersects Baldy Road. Near here is yet another sign saying we are leaving CHWP.


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Steep ridge up the side of tater tot hill, yes I took this one too. As kids we used to go up the fire break on the SW side.


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Wide, expansive summit. The cement tank is full of water right now.


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Looking down at Baldy Road from the summit. The parking area is just below Schinn Road. Cars were barely crawling through here, both on the Claremont and Upland sides.


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Local art. There are frequently spuds here. Someone always cleans them up, I also met people who carried some just to take pictures.


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The view out to the ocean was great, I counted 13 container ships waiting to get into the ports.


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I also brought my old pal John Walker along.


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Walking down the fire road just below the summit. That little mesa ahead used to have a big group of bee hives.


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Rejoining the CHWP, this time I went left rather than simply backtracking. I didn't want any more uphill for the day.


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I really like the Live Oaks that are on so many of the fire roads and slopes around here.


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Upper part of the Thompson Creek trail, just across from the overflow parking at Mills and Baldy Road.


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Later on I walked on the dirt, much easier on the knees. That's the $100K bathroom up ahead.


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Almost home. Lots of pavement over the last three miles.


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The whole route.

Re: Big Potato Loop lots of pics

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:30 am
by mattmaxon
Thanks for sharing this... I too love the oaks.