This year, I challenged myself and my friends to do an overnight in the flat which proved to be the best camping spot in the San Gabriels. I dreamed of it for a whole year since the last trip, wondering what it would be like to go to bed and wake up with a snowcapped Mt. Baldy in front of me. I knew it was going to be tricky hauling so much water since there's no water anywhere around the flat but my dreams just had to become a reality.
The crew was Me, Wes, Nate and Dima. We picked this past weekend months in advance and doubled down on those plans when the forecast showed a random heat wave in the month of March. The lack of water for the 9.4 mile one way trip was going to be a big issue so we coordinated with Jeff to stash some water (2 gallons by the way) at the start of the ridge down to the flat. The route we planned was to start on our bikes at Cow Canyon Saddle and take Sunset Ridge Road all the way to Sunset Point. There, we'd stash the bikes at the start of the ridge and do the last mile and a half by foot, cutting the new growth with our loppers. One way would have a gain of 1640ft and a loss of 1900ft.
The Trip
I rendezvoused with Nate at Cow Canyon Saddle at 8am Saturday morning and heading up the fire road. Having not ever been on this road, it was pretty nice and easy to ride on a fully loaded, 63lb gravel bike. The road was lined on both sides and the middle with thriving poodle brush which made for some delicate riding to avoid making contact. I like to call poodle brush, "the forbidden kush" due to it's aroma closely resembling cannabis but with more exotic floral notes.
The whole ride up to the high point was mostly shaded with some nice west moving breezes which kept us nice and cool. We couldn't have asked for better heat wave conditions for this part.
Eventually we got to our first viewpoint of the flat, who i've missed so so much.
Nate and I eventually made it to the ridge and started to head down. Since the last time I was up here, the trail remained intact but the brush now severely covered the path. We both brought our trusty Fiskars PowerGear® Super Pruners which made quick work of the manzanita, oaks, and whitethorn.
Before we knew it, we were descending the trail down to the flat! This time, we took a different trail than the year before which proved to be the best way in. The brush was thick in some spots and kinda hard to follow but old 10+ year cuts in the trees showed us the way.
Aaaand BOOM! BROWNS FLAT REACHED!
We both cried out out victory calls and were welcomed with lovely echos from across the flat. It was much greener than last year with some nice patches scattered about. Nate and I had a few hours to chill before Dima and Wes would show up so we got our sleep systems set up and laid in the shade of the Ponderosas. Let's now talk about a crazy place called Peter Sinks and I promise we will get back to Browns Flat. Peter Sinks is a massive sinkhole in the mountains of Utah and is one of the coldest spots in the United States. The reason it is one of the coldest spots is because of a phenomena called cold-air pooling where cold air will settle into depressions like valleys or canyons during the night. We all notice this when we hike or camp on a mountain vs inside certain canyons but Peter Sinks is much MUCH more unusual. Peter Sinks floor is made up of limestone which isn't able to hold water, nor does it have a valley that could act as a slide for the cold air to run out of. According to wikipedia, Peter Sinks can hardly go 4 days in summer without hitting freezing temperatures at night.
Browns Flat is also subject to some interesting cold-air pooling since the center of it is at a lower elevation than the outflow in the north-western part of the flat. When Nate and I arrived, the temps were significantly cooler than the ridge line which was probably at 80F. Between the last trip and this trip I did a ton of research on cold-air pooling and convinced my friends that we'd want to bring warm-ish clothes for the overnight but we did not know how cold it was going to be.
Eventually, Dima and Wes emerged from the bushes and were welcomed with hugs and excitement! Nate brought some frisbees with him so we played frisbee golf and established the weather station on the opposite end of the flat as a hole. We got a few throws in until they landed in a beautiful grassy field where we decided to take a break and lay down in the shade. We did complete the game eventually but I cannot remember who won, maybe Nate? Who cares though. The beauty of this place was capturing us left and right such as this grass growing through an almost fully decomposed downed ponderosa. The evening approached as we continued to just take naps and chill under the shade of the trees. Having nothing to do in a breezy wonderful flat was just perfect enough for us. Wandering around looking at the stored acorns in woodpecker holes or the burnt stumps of ancient ponderosas was all that needed to happen that evening and for us 4 Eispiraten adventurers, the simplicity of the day was enough!
Before I knew it, my dream of watching sunset's colors cover Mt. Baldy came true. NOT SO FAST, YOU CAN'T GO TO BED YET, IT IS CURVEBALL TIME!
We were sitting together eating our dinner and drinking some beer looking over the flat and it's views when a sound sounded. All 4 of us recognized this sound but only Dima had the guts to call it out. Somewhere directly across the flat at roughly our elevation was a Mountain Lion making a mating call. Then, behind us and behind that ridge was the return call of another Lion. They went back and forth a few times and stopped. This was the first time any of us had ever heard a Mountain Lion call in all our combined years in the mountains around the world. The call could be described as fucking terrifying and sounds like a human woman screaming. Throughout our dinner session, the lion in the flat moved around by the direction of it's call. Throughout that night, I was woken up by our lion friend about 3 times, plus some foxes also making calls. If you know your John Bradford history, he was living at Browns Flat during the late 1800s and early 1900s UNTIL he was harassed by the local Mountain Lion Population. This snippet was taken from Trails Magazine, Summer 1938. We all quickly realized that Browns Flat was THEE hookup spot for Southern California Mountain Lions and I hope they can reproduce heavily in the near future!
And by the way, temps dipped just below freezing that night since there was ice on our sleeping bags and a sliver of ice in our water bottles, beating out every low temp of every weather station in the range! Talk about a MICROCLIMATE! We ate our breakfast in the morning and departed early (11am) to beat the heat. We took our time trimming lots of brush for future hikes and awaited arriving to Jeff's water stash. And he did deliver on some electrolyte filled water as well as some birthday cake cookies! I'mma leave you with our final pic of the flat on our departure.
Browns Flat Is Amazing
Long live John Bradford Camp and Al Borak
