Magic Mtn. Wilderness High Point Pk. 4,705

[David R]

For my third foray into the Magic Mtn. Wilderness it seemed appropriate to hit the high point. It can be more easily accessed from the fire road that follows the divide but that is long, roundabout and boring. Instead access can be found through a trail, firebreak, ridge that most people do not know exists. There is a detention camp off of Soledad Canyon and similar to the East Fork one, they have had the detainees keep busy by making trails in the canyons and ridges around the camp. The only problem is that all these trails originate from the camp and do not have the access that the East Fork ones have. A backdoor entry is necessary to access the trail ridge. The easiest access is a small canyon immediate west of the camp. You immediately hit a small dry waterfall that is an easy scramble over. Right after the waterfall a small fork opens up to the left and is sandy and relatively brush free. After a slight climb, the ridge is evident and the tributary has another fork, either way works but I went up the left side which looked slightly less steep. I was on the ridge just above the camp and on a wide trail that came up from the camp 300 feet below me.

This trail while wide climbs like a fire break in most places so can be quite steep. There are signs placed along the ridge that didn't make much sense to me so I stopped reading them after a while. There are various trails branching off of the ridge that drop off into the canyon so sticking to the ridge is the way to go regardless of how steep it is. The ground even after the rain is very hard and makes footing a bit difficult especially on the way down. It is apparent that the residents also hike this ridge as the many footprints attested to. Climbing a prominent bump gives you your first good view of the area. A little further and you come to the final sign and the end of the "trail". From here you follow a narrow ridge that is quite obvious. You come to a steep downclimb that takes you to the saddle between the two canyons you have been hiking beside. From here the route is a bit confusing as you twist and turn along this saddle section but the use trail is clear. Finally you climb out to Pk. 3,645 and can see right above you the hogback that is Pk. 4,705.

The next 1,000 plus feet are climbed in about 3/4 of a mile. Following the ridge to the south, you drop to a small saddle on the right. Above you was the use trail which now is a loose gully due to erosion and steepness. I instead hiked right next to the gully through slight brush being able to get better footing up this section which is the steepest of the hike. After gaining the ridge again, you turn in a southeasterly direction. This section is also a nice steady climb with one steep section similar to the one mentioned above. Finally you reach the summit with a small pole and a cairn located there. I found no evidence of a sign-in paper which I had heard was there a year ago. Apparently it had been a party spot as there were numerous old beer cans and broken bottles located near by. The best view is mainly to the north but was primarily suburban sprawl so not too awe inspiring. The top was a bit cool with a nice wind blowing. To the south you could see the Magic Mountain fire road and another fire road coming up to the east from Soledad Canyon. The hike up was just over two hours so I relaxed up there longer then I normally would.

The route down took almost as long with the steep sections. When I got above the camp it was quite loud and busy as it looked like they were having an outdoor event. I did not meet any of them on the trail proper. The weather was perfect and the terrain made for an enjoyable challenge to an interesting spot.

[David Martin]

Thanks to David R’s very helpful report here, Kurt and I followed in his footsteps yesterday and hiked from the little canyon west of the Conservation Camp up to High Point, then down to the Indian Canyon trailhead via the Indian Creek (Discovery) fire road. We always start these Saturday hikes well before dawn; this time we were walking at 4:46. The previous week I'd scouted the little detour from the canyon to the west so we had no trouble scrambling up there to the wide fire road / fire break, which was easy to follow up into the hills. Though it doesn’t appear on any map I have, this is an huge scar across the land that can easily be seen from many miles away.

David R, I’m sure the quirky signs up there ("The Moon", etc.) were planted by amateur radio groups that haul gear up to the hilltops on “DX-peditions.”

Parts of this are indeed pretty steep but we made decent time, reaching High Point just after daybreak. I brought hiking poles and was very glad to have them on the climbs. High Point is just a homely bump near the Santa Clara Divide with no visual appeal, but the panoramas from atop it were impressive.

We had clear views of Magic Mountain and could see that most of the snow to its north that we had tramped through last week was now gone. We passed a few little patches along the upper sections of yesterday’s hike but 99% of it was brown, dry, and bushy. We had Santa Anas yesterday morning and it was SUPER windy, especially near the summit. We had to walk at weird angles to stay upright, and were almost blown over a couple of times.

The fire break ends at the Indian Creek fire road, just short of the divide. We took the fire road back down to make this a loop hike. It passes through some nice little surviving sections of oak and pine, but it was sad to see the vast areas denuded by fire. There were a few sections of poodle dog on the way up, and a lot of it on the fire road coming back down, but at all times it was easy enough to avoid. On the way down we were mostly sheltered from the wind, and stripped down to short sleeves for the last couple of miles.

The custom map that I created for this route on AllTrails showed 1985’ of climb but it felt like a lot more and at the end my Strava recording called it 3129’, which I think is about right. The link, with photos: https://www.strava.com/activities/4594557470

Thanks again David R for your great route idea. That was a good day. We plan to do 2 or 3 more hikes in this area in the coming weeks.