One of my favorite hikes had been Brown Mountain via ACH. I had accessed this back in the day off a ridge between CCC and the fire station but that route after the fire fell into disuse and was difficult to access the canyon. With the trail coming down from the fire station even though it is a little longer makes this route doable. I got my typical late start at 8;30 and made my way down the steep ridge. Poison oak is beginning to grow and in another couple of weeks will make this an obstacle course to get through. At the bottom I crossed the creek and met a fellow who came from the Brown Dam and told me to watch out "for some damn hippies" I was unsure what to respond but continued up the switchbacks where the hippies were fortunately not in evidence. From the top, you drop back down to the creek and hike up the creek bed until the trail connects to Ken Burton. I only had one meet up with bikers who were riding at a reasonable pace but there were 12 of them and it took them a long time to pass me as they were all going at varying speeds. At the fire road, the steep route up to Brown looked very brushy with no evidence of a use trail but looks can be deceiving and while faint there is a decent route through out. The first two bumps are the most steep but mercifully short. After that you get one more decent bump and then you're on a rolling ridge until you get to the top.
The route to the saddle was uneventful other then one contour which has been messed up by trees falling over it making it difficult to figure out how to continue through, from there I just stuck directly to the top of the ridge which was cooler and is more enjoyable. The trail down to Bear Canyon is in great shape after the Trail Builders came through. The old cabin is still there with old detritus around it. Bear Canyon still has a long way to recover from the fire but is getting there. The route to the Camp is in excellent shape perhaps the best I've ever seen it. Bear Canyon Camp was packed, the busiest I've ever seen. Every campsite was taken and it was really noisy. I got out of there quickly and was surprised at how few hikers I passed up to Switzer. The climb out of the canyon was pretty busy as usual but once I turned down canyon it quieted down significantly. This section is long but once you enter the side canyon is one of the loveliest sections of the trail. I met two parties through here, one was a group of cyclist that were doing some maintenance on the trail which was nice. I always forget how long the section in the Arroyo is until you get back to Ken Burton. This section has many obvious camping spots that must have been used in the past. Climbing out of the Arroyo was an unpleasant way to finish a hike but that's what separates the hikers from the casuals. Stats were around 16-17 miles with 4,000 feet elevation gain in 7 hours.
