Moments in Dirt and Ink

Needles BLM Click for map. A week has already passed and there's a hike with some Hundred Peaks Section folks, but they're actually doing a couple things off the Desert Peaks Section list. The one on Saturday made me pause. I think I could do it on my own, but with a group I'd be slowing the rest down. The Sunday hike looks much easier, although the stats are a little worrisome. Only 4.5 miles and 2100 feet gain, but it'll take "5-7 hours, possibly longer." (I can find this out because the DPS peak guides are now available to all online, not just members. I don't even have enough DPS peaks to become a member yet.) Yikes! But it is nearly 1000 feet a mile with class 2 climbing and no trail. Well, there could be the tiniest bit of old prospector trail at the start, but then nothing. With a 7AM start, we have plenty of time to get up and back in the day. Unfortunately, after an in car navigational problem, we're actually starting at 8AM. Still mor...

Joshua Tree National Park Click for map. The second hike I signed up for was originally going to be Mineral and Tip Top, two on the far northeast side of San Bernardino National Forest, but there was a report that the road was more impassible than usual after the recent rain. Instead the group decided to do a loop over Ryan Mountain and Lost Horse Mountain as a shuttle. I'd been trying to get some interest in doing this as a loop on Sunday, so that worked out for me. Well, discounting that I'd have liked to do both. Again, the $30 entrance fee is taken care of by flashing a senior pass belonging to someone else in the car. Then we're off to the Ryan Mountain Trailhead and setting up the shuttle. Then we're off! Almost. We have to jog over from the "Indian Cave" trail we actually end up starting down. We're a little eager. The trail to the "Indian Cave", which seems to be the rocks resting with a space between up ahead and not a cave....

Joshua Tree National Park Click for map. I decided to be social and signed up for some hikes going on as part of the Holiday Hooplah. This is an annual party put on by the Hundred Peaks Section of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club with hikes in and around Joshua Tree National Park. I've been to a bunch already, so am running out of new peaks to climb. (For more Sierra Club outings including these past Holiday Hooplahs, click the "Sierra Club" tag.) Today, I am up for Queen Mountain and Mount Inspiration in two separate hikes. I get to save the $30 entrance fee because I can sit in a car with someone with a senior pass. First is Queen Mountain, which is going to be a little bit further than usual because the roads were closed after the recent rains. Parking is at an interpretive turnout instead of the usual small loop of dirt at the end of a road. We can see Queen Mountain right away. It is a lot of flat and a deceptive amount of up. Of the two taller bu...

San Bernardino National Forest San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Click for map. I seem to be on some sort of kick to climb a bunch more Hundred Peaks Section listed peaks . I signed up for an official outing to climb three peaks clustered north of Mount San Antonio, better known as Baldy. The section will let anyone come along, free of charge, although they do like to know something about you for the harder hikes so it is best to sign up for something easy first. This one mentions some "loose and exposed Class 2 terrain" as a reason it is "not for beginners", so probably counts as a harder hike. But they know me by now. At some point years ago, I had taken note of Pine Mountain, the North Backbone Trail that crosses it, and the Blue Ridge Road and put them in the list of things I wanted to experience, so an outing doing Pine Mountain and a few others seems like a perfect way to do it. Meeting at the turn to Blue Ridge at 6:30AM to beat the heat a lit...

Carrizo Plain National Monument Click for map. I have been thinking I might return to Caliente Mountain for a climb of it rather than a walk over from the side of it . I am not too keen on the traditional really hot day for it, though. I signed up for another Hundred Peaks Section hike, this time lead by the Doggetts and Jin Oak. At least one Simpson did it the week before, but I did not get signed up to that one. The weather promises to be stunning: a little cloudy and cool although with just a touch of a possibility of a chance of rain. Well, maybe a little more than that. It might rain. The early morning drive started into a stunning sunrise full of clouds and the spaces needed to let the light hit those clouds. We parked a little further from the mountain than expected at a new locked gate that sprang up a few years back, not quite using the parking area designated by some pipes on the opposite side of the dirt road. The gate across the fading road at our start. Caliente...

San Bernardino National Forest Click for map. The day starts early with the blue moon in total eclipse, which is pretty cool even if it is only an accident of the calendar. The blue moon, still partly in eclipse, setting as the sun rises. Today, the plan is to join a scheduled Hundred Peaks Section hike and climb a couple peaks on their list. Everyone is welcome to come on a hike if they are capable of completing it, you just have to email the hike leader. The trail we are starting at seems to be a little more exclusive. I expect someone asked permission at some point and this group is a rather good guest, not known for carving on or cutting fences and more likely to pick up trash than to drop it. They gather and we all sign the standard waiver and then we are off. The trail start is marked at the start of a track between fence and road. The trail follows paved road for a short way, then turns away from the Pathfinder Ranch entrance and onto a dirt road behind a...

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. The blurb said a hike down to Forbush Flat and then 1.5 miles more to a natural spring. Cryptic. What could it mean? If they head down Gidney Creek, it would be somewhere I have not gone before. Maybe they would hike up the creek and it is that far to the spring that should be feeding Forbush Flat? That seems rather long, but I have not done it and with enough twists, maybe it is. It is rated strenuous for just six miles. That could mean off trail or just try to discourage those who might get in trouble with the "upside down" hike. Most likely, they mean the travertine pools. It would be easy to ask, but also easy enough to sign up and get to either see the pools again or something new. Up toward the top and heading down. A beautiful day for it. The loose cliffs of Little Pine Mountain are looking especially stark today.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2 The night was already colder than expected when we went to bed, so we were slightly worried. Somehow it did not get much colder and was already getting warmer by our sunrise wake up time. Pudding again for this morning, in "special dark" chocolate. The shaking elicits an, "It's loud," from my neighbor with just a touch of animosity, so I yield to the thought of pulling on my shoes and going back to the top of the mountain where the sunrise will be better. Such is life. We are out just about on time for the four rolling miles out to Rabbit Peak. Good morning star shine, it is time to boogie. Shedding a bit more elevation before the higher peak.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2 The hikers gathered at just the right crossing of Truckhaven and S22, the latest coming in at midnight, to camp and get a mildly early start in the morning. Who would have thought the state park would allow dispersed camping? Just have to keep it within one car length of an established road. I give my banana pudding* a nice, long shake and put it aside in the cool morning air to refrigerate before carefully examining my foot for even the slightest glimmer of pain. No motion seems to set it off, so I get to wear my trail runners. It makes me feel safer to have a bigger range of movement on a wild "trail". I get some hot chocolate together to go with the banana pudding and scarf down half of it before getting a rather loud full signal. I head over to the actual meet point. We get signed in and extra sure that everyone has enough water. My brain keeps grunting that this will be a particularly heavy pack unti...

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. I have never hiked with the Ventura Sierra Club and thought I might when I noticed they were planning a hike including Howard Creek, a trail that has so far escaped my stomping. They arrived punctually in another part of the parking lot for the carpool, but eventually the two of us who were misplaced got found and everyone was piled comfortably into three cars. Upon arrival at Howard Creek Trailhead, we dropped off one car and continued a little less comfortably to Rose Valley Campground. Hiker parking is just outside the campground gate. Even down in the valley bottom, views already look good in all directions. But it is cold. All these campgrounds tucked into the north side of Nordhoff Ridge seem to be good cold sinks. The day looks good as we start up the road through the campground and out of Rose Valley. The waterfall looks like it might be a little wet or maybe just a little shadowy. We keep right as we walk through the camp ...

Angeles National Forest Click for map. I came out to join a group of peakbaggers from the Hundred Peaks Section hiking to the high point of the City of Los Angeles. I thought that when I crossed into the city way out at the 5 and 14 split, I would not be out of it again until late afternoon, but I seem to be standing in the City of Glendale as everyone gathers up. I expected a large a-lot because it is Bill's birthday, but there seems to only be a small a-lot of just over 20 for the hike. Bill says he met his wife hiking this peak, so now we know why it is special to him and why he wanted to mark year 70 here. He is a bit of a romantic. Getting everyone together, waivers signed, introduced, and starting down the trail seems to get done fairly quickly. We hit the trail and start climbing just three minutes after the meet time. Admittedly, it was a very easy meet time to make. Hang a left and start to climb. Quickly gaining city views and the 210 and the Verdugos with thei...

Santa Barbara front country Click for map. I was wanting to go up the canyon again but also thinking it is more of a social hike when I noticed it was also about the be lead by the local Sierra Club. Perfect! I can just show up and wander up with them. I was a little worried that it might still be a red flag day. It was Friday evening and those of us who noticed had an extra mile to hike up the road while those of us who did not came back to find the CHP had plastered warning stickers on everything a little after 7PM. The sign warns of towing, so it could have been worse. Today is not so bad except for the usual crowds. I get lucky because everyone is passing up the spot on the end because it looks too small. I go ahead and try it with the dinky car and it fits with a few feet to spare to let the Florida plates in front of me get out. Others are stuck walking a half mile up anyway, mostly because the turnout that is big enough to take cars head in is entirely parked parallel. Ah,...

Los Padres National Forest Click for map. The weekend comes with an offer of led hikes by the Sierra Club for all who show up at the Bank of America at State and Hope by 9 AM, except for the occasional missed day or early meet time. (The hikes are listed here , here , or here .) I decided to take them up on the offer. Today is an early meet time because the drive out to Figueroa Mountain is a bit long, but it is not so hard to get out somewhere by 8 AM. The group numbered 10 as we headed out and still did when we got to the trailhead in the tough part of Davy Brown Campground. It is so tough, in fact, that we were asked to park in a somewhat different spot by the current occupants of the last camp site so they could use the parking area instead of the road as an exit route. They did not like their chances with the road, which was surprising considering the cavernous clearance the pickup had. We reparked and they were happy and so we could head out down the rest of the increasing...

Angeles National Forest San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Click for map. A new day and new peaks to bag, but this time I will join a planned outing of the Hundred Peaks Section for some company. I have been really wanting to do the traverse of Pleasant View Ridge from Burkhart Saddle to the other side of the closed bit of the Pacific Crest Trail, especially if there is going to be a car shuttle. Unfortunately, this is not that. This is heading up to the saddle and then turning the other way to grab a couple nearby peaks. Still, it gets me into an area I have enjoyed visiting before, then out to some new spots. First, it is a little over a mile downhill on well used trail to Cooper Canyon, past various falls and with the sun thinking about getting down into the depths of the canyon. There is a lot of vertical to the land as Cooper Canyon empties out into Little Rock Creek. Past the Cooper Canyon waterfall that marks the end of previous exhibitions in this direction,...