August 21
Despite the heat wave I planned for a loop hike over Mt Lukens, figuring I could still take advantage of the cool morning and the hot part would be all downhill. The ascent via Crescenta View was still nice as the sun was mostly behind the higher peaks, allowing me to enjoy the view across to the Verdugos and out to Catalina Island. I met a gentleman along the way who was carrying a large pack in training for a Mineral King expedition so I slowly walked with him the last mile as we compared Sierra treks.
Starting out, with all the electrical equipment Lukens is easy to spot.
Verdugos with downtown LA and Catalina in the far background.
Still shady as I got higher. A couple switchbacks up here were in the sun although not for long.
Brushy trail.
Intersected the road a little below the summit.
After a long break at the summit where I feasted on a Pop Tart and drank a 20 ounce bottle spiked with a NUUN tablet (watermelon) I headed down the Haines Truck Trail fire road before intersecting the Rim of the Valley trail. Here I really started to notice the heat, although going downhill made it a little easier. The views here are really nice as the steep canyons provide a great distraction to the weather. As I approached the bottom of this canyon I was happy to see real trees and a bit of shade. Reaching this spot also meant that I had less than a mile to complete my day which would total about 10 miles.
Officially fire road although it's been overtaken by brush.
Intersection of the Rim trail down.
Tree cover at the canyon bottom.
Not much water flowing, just around that bend to the right I got a surprise.
While rounding a bend at the stream I managed to startle a bear who stood up to look at me and then scampered off behind some trees. I heard brush crashing and saw a brown rump heading up the steep hillside so I figured things were OK for me to continue. About 50 feet further I ran into the same bear, this time she also ran up the same hillside. Well, now I've got two browns nearby so what is there to do? I thought the trail would continue along the stream, however it turned and contoured up the hill where I saw the same bear looking down at me. I kept walking up the trail two switchbacks where I again saw the bear about 30 yards ahead of me. I started to yell and clapped my trekking poles together, she merely stood up, made a false charge and then sat down. I took a couple steps forward with my arms spread out wide so she got up and gave me another false charge before retreating a bit and then laying down on the trail. Since the hillside is so steep there I couldn't see another way around, and I knew the other bear was somewhere above me too. I stood there a while longer, which seemed to encourage this apparently nursing bear to get up again and give me another false charge, upon which I decided to turn back. I had been standing at the switchback so I was able to keep facing her as I walked down, clapping my poles together and yelling so she would keep her distance. I got back to the edge of the creek, searching the area and CalTopo on my phone to get an idea of the terrain to find another way out. The creek bed was overgrown to nearly impenetrable and the canyon walls were all very steep and of course contained plenty of Poison Oak.
Bear above me as I reached the switchbacks, at the time I didn't know she was on the trail.
This is about as close as we got after one of the false charges.
Our final face-off spot. I looked at the details and that previous photo was not zoomed in.
Unfortunately it all looked far too steep for my solo hiking comfort level, so I decided to head back up the way I came. The heat started to get to me so I took a couple breaks in the scrub brush shade, while also checking the map. I had been on the Haines fire road a while back with Nate so I decided to bail that way, which made for a slightly shorter trip back instead of going all the way up to the summit once again. While walking out I felt like I had some heat exhaustion so I took a very long break once I got to the road and had good shade. It was here I looked at my water supply and noticed that I had about 10 ounces remaining to cover the last three miles - fortunately there is a tiny stream over near the paved roads. While I didn't have a filter I was happy to get a couple mouthfuls of water before heading back to Deukmejian Park where I got in my car and drove home.
Looking back, the bears were lower left center. The trail shown goes back to Deukmejian Park.
Near the bottom of the road I saw this mostly useless gate.
Curious about the hive mind here, has anyone had a bear encounter like this? If so, what was your course of action? My thinking was that I knew another bear was in the area somewhere above me and there was not a reasonable way around the mom on trail. Plus the other one was larger than a cub so I wasn't sure if this was a family outing or not. Due to the heat I didn't see another hiker on the trail the entire way down so I did not think that I could wait for greater numbers to scare them off. It turned into a 16 mile day rather than the 10 that I planned and due to backtracking I managed over 4000 feet of gain.
Just another great day in the Gabes.
Lukens and bears oh my
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JeffH
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"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
Donald Shimoda
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Matthew
- Supercaff
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I had a bear encounter at night where one was sitting on the trail in horse flats campground. My friend and I decided parked by the Christian camps since the road was closed and we decided to turn around and walk the long way on the road back to our car. Not really a face off, I just had the option to take another route that wasn't too bad
stoke is high
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Sean
- Cucamonga
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Thanks for the report. You made it out alive and in the end that's what matters. I wouldn't have done anything aggressive like shout or bang my sticks. I would have retreated to the gully and stepped off the trail as much as possible to see if it would run past me. Bears are pretty smart. Give them a little space and they'll avoid you. Of course it's a risk doing that. But I'm getting old and fighting a bear is on my bucket list.