EISPIRATEN

Need a decent hike this weekend, and haven't bagged Josephine or Lawlor, so might as well go for a big loop. I don't want needless miles however, so I'm not sure if there's any benefit to taking the fire road as opposed to the Colby Canyon trail.

Tentative for Saturday

Park at CC trailhead (or Switzers) and head up to Josephine saddle ~ 2 miles

Head west, ideally along SE ridge all the way to Josephine as opposed to the trail, has anyone done this? ~1.5 miles

Back to Josephine saddle ~ 2 miles

Up Strawberry's west face, and down to Strawberry-Lawlor saddle ~ 2.5 - 3 miles

Up Lawlor ~ .75 miles

Down Lawlor to Redbox ~ 3 miles (I don't want to take that south ridge all the way down, but is the lower portion less harsh than the upper? It appears the trail intersects with the ridge at an obvious point as shown on the map).

Redbox to Switzers/Colby trailhead ~4 miles

Seems like a 13-14 mile hike. Estimates reasonable? If I ascend the Josephine fire road instead of CC, will that add to mileage?

JMunaretto wrote:Head west, ideally along SE ridge all the way to Josephine as opposed to the trail, has anyone done this? ~1.5 miles

Here's a picture looking up the ridge (this is where the trail from Josephine Saddle/Colby Cyn meets the road up to Josephine)...


Here's a pic looking down the ridge from the peak...


I've read 1 or 2 reports about that ridge, one from Travis (I think) and one from Bob Burd. Don't have links, but easy to find.

Wow.
I would start at SWITZERS and go the 4 mile up to RED BOX via the GABRIELINO NATIONAL RECREATION TRAIL. ( A nice warm up not too steep to get ready for...)
From there go up that south ridge to MOUNT LAWLOR. (...FUN!)
Go west to the STRAWBERRY TRAIL and over STRAWBERRY PEAK. (I would go around STRAWBERRY PEAK via the COLBY CANYON TRAIL. You have already been on that peak).
Then to up to JOSEPHINE PEAK and down back to SWITZERS via the fire road or COLBY CANYON.
I've never been on the trail around the north side of STRAWBERRY PEAK but I hear it's worth it.

My recommendation would be to take the road to the summit, take the ridge down. Turn off the ridge before it drops off The map shows my route on 1/30/2005

One alternate would be to come up from AFH from mile marker 22.95 XC to Josephine.

I did this some years ago on an HPS trip. The Sierra Club may have some beta on this route

The other modification to you're trip I'd make is to take the Firebreak down from Mt Lawlor toward Red Box to "Pole Saddle", I've done this several times, no need to hike back to Lawlor Saddle

Cheers
Matt

mattmaxon wrote:One alternate would be to come up from AFH from mile marker 22.95 XC to Josephine.

I did this some years ago on an HPS trip. The Sierra Club may have some beta on this route

Apologies in advance to Joe for this hijack.

Matt, do you have gps coords or marked up map showing your route from AFH to the main west ridge? I made a half-hearted attempt to follow the Sierra Club's beta a few months ago and failed. Wanted to try again but was hoping to have better beta than the SC's.

thanks for the replies. I have no problem going straight down the ridge from Lawlor, though I'm not sure a group of people would enjoy dealing with a bunch of yucca plants.

the west ridge of Josephine is certainly intriguing, but would be a pain without a car shuttle. in the future, would love to check it out.

HikeUp wrote:Matt, do you have gps coords or marked up map showing your route from AFH to the main west ridge?

Well by "some years ago" I'm talking 20+ years

GPS wasn't of much use then with SA enabled....

I wasn't leading...didn't plan the trip...

But I'll give it a go....

We parked on AFH went across the road to a gully and went up... The brush was moderate but thinned out as you might expect on/near the ridge


This is strictly from memory
[/u]

Thanks Matt. That's not the same gully I tried, but it certainly looks interesting.

JMunaretto wrote:Need a decent hike this weekend, and haven't bagged Josephine or Lawlor, so might as well go for a big loop. I don't want needless miles however, so I'm not sure if there's any benefit to taking the fire road as opposed to the Colby Canyon trail.

Tentative for Saturday

Park at CC trailhead (or Switzers) and head up to Josephine saddle ~ 2 miles

Head west, ideally along SE ridge all the way to Josephine as opposed to the trail, has anyone done this? ~1.5 miles

Back to Josephine saddle ~ 2 miles

Up Strawberry's west face, and down to Strawberry-Lawlor saddle ~ 2.5 - 3 miles

Up Lawlor ~ .75 miles

Down Lawlor to Redbox ~ 3 miles (I don't want to take that south ridge all the way down, but is the lower portion less harsh than the upper? It appears the trail intersects with the ridge at an obvious point as shown on the map).

Redbox to Switzers/Colby trailhead ~4 miles

Seems like a 13-14 mile hike. Estimates reasonable? If I ascend the Josephine fire road instead of CC, will that add to mileage?

Joseph: I think you'd do better by hiking from the Colby Canyon trailhead. I think it's nicer than going up the fire road. Fire road = .

When you hit the ridge, you'd have to turn left (west) to hit Josephine and then back track to the point where the trail up Colby Canyon comes in. The backtracking adds some mileage, but just based on a gut feeling, you might come out about equal since the fire road is a much longer way to reach the Josephine - Strawberry ridge.

Also, when you get to Switzer's, it's not far from where the little road down into Switzer's hits ACH to get to Colby, so you wouldn't need a car shuttle. There is a trail from Switzer's to the Clear Creek Information Station which is very near to where the fire road to Josephine starts, so if you did choose the road, you still wouldn't need a car shuttle.

The descent from Lawlor to "pole saddle" is pretty steep on crappy DG, and there is some yucca, but I don't think the yucca is particularly bad. It's certainly doable; I've seen and/or read about people doing it. I suppose it would just depend on the group. It would definitely be a significant time savings.

I haven't ever directly gone up to Josephine from the east, so I can't comment on the brush or anything like that.

Even though it's not supposed to be particularly hot this weekend, I'd get an early start on the Colby Canyon trail (or the fire road). It's pretty exposed and can be unpleasant on a sunny day. Based on your past TR's, I'd bet that you would get an early start anyway, but I thought I'd mention it. That trail is no fun at all on a summer's day unless you start really early.

Sounds like a good hike. The ascent up the class 3 west ridge of Strawberry is a favorite of mine. Have fun!

HJ

Hi Joe, seems like we meet at all the various forums recently. Unfortunately I am out of town this weekend so I can't go on that trip. But I would suggest to go down the south ridge of Lawlor. It's short and certainly doable (based on a hike I did about a year ago) and saves you a couple of miles. But it's nothing compared to the Iron south ridge in terms of yuccas. If adding mileage to your trip is important of course you should go back to lawlor saddle. I would also take Colby Canyon up to Josephine saddle and not the fire road.
I am certainly looking forward to the 6th. Cheers.

G, great to see you here. I'm definitely not looking to add mileage, just don't want any Iron Mt sort of business downhill. Sounds like I'll check it out then.

You're right with up Baldy to Pine and back taking 9-10 hrs, I think we'll be fine starting ~ 7-7:30. Hopefully the weather stays mild.