EISPIRATEN

Sunday I met up with Missy and we headed out to explore the area along with a visit of Iron #2, which definitely needs a better name. First we drove along 3N17 and visited Little Gleason before taking the road for a short while toward Big Buck Campground. Unfortunately a large deadfall ended this though so I got some practice backing out on the dirt road, this would come in handy later in the day. After the obligatory semi-stop at the Station Fire memorial, we were able to drive to the summit of Mt Gleason. We picked up a lot of trash in the ruins of the hut plus more strewn around the large flat summit area. From there we took another dirt road to Messenger Flat campground where I was happy to find that the bathrooms were clean. Well at least the one I visited was clean... There were two people there with a one-person tent and no car, so I wonder what the rest of the story might be. Sometimes it's best to imagine something cool rather than finding out that mom was just out picking up a pizza. Anyway, moving on we took another fork in the road toward Iron Mountain, this time on a less maintained road. We ran into a downed tree which halted us and no amount of Missy's effort would move that giant log out of the way. To her credit, it was at least 20 feet long and probably weighs a few hundred pounds. Anyway I got to back out a much longer winding road to a wide spot where we parked to start our main trek. Here's where it got interesting, instead of walking down the road I figured we could go over the two little peaks (peaklets?) and catch the road a little later - down the road a ways. Turns out both of these were higher elevation than Iron, so this was the high point of the day. From the higher summit it looked like a nice slope down to the road, but once we started down the buckthorn got a little thicker and taller. Much taller. It was a struggle to get through some of it and we both ended up donating some blood along the way. I pulled some pointy things out of my arms for the next couple hours. After that lower degree of fun we bypassed the obvious route on the NE side of Iron with the idea that we could go up the short way on the other side. An old trip report mentioned a use trail but in walking around the brush was much too dense for any other route. After a brief consultation we gave up on this summit for the day and climbed a short way up to sit on a nice rock outcropping. It turned out to be a great snack spot so we sat there for a while telling stories and enjoying the views. An uneventful but warm walk back up the road followed, this time we didn't take any detours so it was also less of an adventure.
All in all, still a great day out in the local mountains and a nice reminder of why we want to live around here.


Some large tracks on the road to Big Buck.


Sun peeking over the water tank at Little Gleason.


Motorized travel stops here.


The high point of the day, second summit of our detour.


Looking at Iron from the higher summit. Still looks like an easy traverse.


Missy breaking through buckthorn. Yes, this was actually the easiest way down.


We got some nice view of the Pacific Ocean at times.


The first foray through the buckthorn made us wary of going over another slope so we didn't take the seeming obvious route.


Nice rocks to sit on, just above the road near Iron.



Indian Bend saddle water tank, good spot for second break.

Sounds like quite an adventure. Sorry you didn't make the peak. Thanks for the TR.

This reminds me of one of my favorite hikes in the San Gabes. Exactly 16 years ago I did Iron #2. On December 15th, 2007, I started at Trail Canyon trailhead off of Big Tujunga. Back then the trail up to Tom Lucas camp was in really good shape, with a bit of overgrown trail for a bit until the trail reached the trail that goes south to Condor/Fox #2 and north to Gleason et al. Iron #2 has lots or reddish (iron!) dirt/rocks, hence, I assume, the name. Not quite sure why Iron #1 (Big Iron) is called that.

I followed some fresh mountain lion tracks from Indian Ben Saddle up the ridge to the peak. Despite the freshness of the tracks, I still managed a nap on top. 14 miles roundtrip. There is (was?) a steep barren slope on the south side of the Iron #2 ridge which I took when coming down - might have been what you were looking for. I'm sure the Station Fire obliterated much of what I saw. I wish I had pics, but I didn't own a camera then.

The upper part of Pacoima Canyon, right below Lightning Point, was quite a magical area before the fire. There was a grove of huge incense cedars, nearly sequoia-sized, along the Pacoima Canyon Trail before it climbed south to Mendenhall Road near Indian Ben Saddle.

Anyone who can smile like that while swimming in a sea of buckthorn must have a screw loose!

Tom Kenney wrote: ↑The upper part of Pacoima Canyon, right below Lightning Point, was quite a magical area before the fire. There was a grove of huge incense cedars, nearly sequoia-sized, along the Pacoima Canyon Trail before it climbed south to Mendenhall Road near Indian Ben Saddle.

Fires have changed a lot of the landscape in the Gabes and unfortunately they won't grow back in our lifetimes. It's obvious on a route like this where we didn't see a single pine tree for miles. Of course that makes me think about the few that survived - what did they do differently than the others?

Followup to this report.... December 22,2023
While I was driving toward Mt Wilson Missy sent me a message saying the Gleason gate was open again and it could be a good opportunity to knock this pesky peak off the imaginary list, so we headed that direction. This time we bypassed the first couple bumps and just walked down the road to the still-obvious ridge route. While traversing up and down and up and down and up once again we mostly kept to a use trail and I had the chance to do a little buckthorn trimming. Take that you stickers and tell your brethren I'm coming after them too! Anyway, the summit is somewhat unremarkable although it does have a benchmark and register. The best part about this day was the clouds rolling up from the greater LA area just to our ridge, it's always a great time to be above them. After all this walking we visited the Lightning Point group camp site and then did a bit of sketchy road in the Mav to find Big Buck Campground. That was a big disappointment since now it's just the end of the road. Seems it was up on a hilltop but got wiped out in the fire and is now protected by buckthorn. That annoying plant is definitely the theme up here.