Continued...
Patrick had left the evening before, leaving me to my own devices for a second
full day in the Soledad Canyon area east of Santa Clarita in Southern
California. I had spent the night sleeping along the Santa Clara River, now only
a small creek after more than a week of no rain. I had found this quite little
spot off Capra Rd where I thought it might be quiet when I first noticed it on
Google Maps. What I failed to realize until I got there was the busy
that also run through this canyon. I decided to simply deal with the
trains that went by in the night, five or six all told, waking up each time
before falling back to sleep again fairly quickly. Even with the horn blaring,
it was less disturbing than headlights from vehicles which might belong to
LEOs looking to find out what I was up to. Even in the fog of sleep I know the
trains won't be stopping.
I had come to this spot so I could use it to access an old road leading to
Peak 3,700ft. It was one of two unnamed summits in this northwest corner of
the San Gabriels that I wanted to reach today, made significantly easier by the
fire that had swept over the entire region eight months earlier. I would do
these two summits as the first and (near) last of the day over a span of
10 1/2 hours that would include a good deal of driving between the THs for
the many summits I visited on the day.
Peak 3,700ft
This was the longest hike of the day at 3mi one-way, but not at all difficult.
There is an old 4WD truck trail on the north side rising from the Santa Clara
River to some mining sites near the summit. A fire road continues along the
ridgeline to the summit and further to the summit of the higher Magic Mtn to
the south. I was a little concerned that I might have some trouble getting
across the river, but as mentioned already, I found it to be little more than
after an extended dry spell, and with the aid of a rock in the
middle of the channel I was able to get over it quite easily. On the other side
I found the old truck trail starting up, a few treads showing recent usage.
These led to and worsening conditions where the
tracks
quickly ended. It would have been difficult for even a motorcycle to continue
up the eroded section of roadway. The poor conditions are mostly confined to
the intial steep gradient climbing out of the river drainage; above,
would actually be more driveable. Regardless, it proved exceedingly easy on
foot, in no small part due to the July fire that had swept across the slopes
and removed all the brush growing on the roadway. The topo map shows the road
continuing on the ridgeline all the way to Magic Mtn, but that isn't really
the case. The road appears to end before reaching Peak 3,700ft, forking with
several spurs that look consistent with mining operations that used to be
conducted in the area. An old fire road does continue from the truck trail and
I used this to finish
to Peak 3,700ft, arriving after an hour and
quarter's effort. The peak has little to make it remarkable, but it does lie
in the heart of the July 2016 Sand Fire and looks out over a very
.
There appears to be very little regrowth 8 months later, even with
all the rain that we've had this year. This is not to say all is lost, quite
to the contrary - I have no doubt that the chaparral will recover nicely over
the next few years to make this same hike a far more difficult undertaking. I
found no register or cairn, not terribly surprising for a rather obscure,
unnamed summit. My was pretty much by the same route, save for
a few shortcuts, taking an hour to get back to the van.
Peak 3,636ft
I next headed northeast along SR14 to Escondido Canyon Rd for a short hike to
this unnamed summit. My starting point was based on info I got off PB for
an approach from the northwest, about a mile roundtrip. While ownership is
unclear, there are no fences or No Trespassing signs here to prohibit one.
Though not part of the recent fire,
is sufficiently open to make
cross-country travel easy. It took about 15min to make the hike to the summit,
aided in the last third by a dirt road coming up from the east. There is an
located in that direction, with a gate at Escondido Canyon Rd
to prevent access via that all-road route.
Peak 3,791ft/Sleeping Valley BM/Peak 3,260ft
Next up was a trio of summits immediately north of the freeway from
Peak 3,636ft. Landownership here is not clear as well, though it appears the
area is openly used by equestrians and motorcyclists, probably local residents.
Most of the land surrounding the three peaks is private, but I found an access
point on the east side off Valley Sage Rd that utilizes an abandoned home that
had been burned out some years earlier. A For Sale sign is found at
, but I didn't find any No Trespassing signs, fences, or
gate barring access. I followed a series of roads past ,
and up to the lower east summit of Peak 3,791ft, and from there to the higher
. I then followed the west
for another mile and a half to , dropping more than
300ft to a saddle about 1/3 of the way to the second peak. The
I found was labeled "Sleepy Valley" rather than the expected
"Windy" as one would guess from the topo map. I had originally planned to head
back at this point, but noted another minor summit, Peak 3,260ft about a mile
to the north on my GPSr. The intervening terrain appeared to be open without
blocking private estates, so I decided to head off in that direction. The north
side was without a road or trail for the first few hundred feet and mildly
brushy, but I soon found heading down to
between the two summits. A steep track then led up
to of the last
summit. I enjoyed the views found there, overlooking the green Sierra Pelona
Valley to the north, framed by the 5,000-foot ridge of Sierra Pelona behind it.
On the return I used one of several trails going over the saddle between the
,
then continuing southeast until I came upon Valley Sage Rd.
There was a No Trespassing sign here, evidently I'd passed through a section of
property whose owners didn't want me there, but not badly enough to put a fence
around it. I walked the pavement uneventfully back to the van, arriving around
12:45p.
Peak 3,420ft
I next drove about 5mi east on SR14 to a small collection of hills between
Acton and Soledad Canyons just south of the freeway. PB lists three summits in
this circular pattern of hillocks, though oddly not the highpoint which
does appear on LoJ, unnamed Peak 3,420ft. In of the
hills is a mobile home community
that allows no street parking. So I parked in front of the office near the
pool and made a tour of the hills starting .
Seemed all legal-like
since there were no signs restricting these spaces to residents or visitors
or such. The place is called Stallion Meadows Homeowners and all the streets
have horse-related names, but there are no horses anywhere in the community
and they probably have CC&Rs forbidding them. There is
that runs
around the periphery of the community and I saw several residents taking
advantage of it for the fresh air. Informal side trails branch off at various
points to climb to the higher, circular ring of hills surrounding it. I used
on of these to climb first to the one on PB called "Sleeping Dog" where a
few large
are found (reportedly burial markers for dogs, thus the
name), then to the highpoint at , and around to the other
two in succession, connected by from one to
the next. I learned later that the oldest PB summit, Peak 3,408ft, was submitted
by Laura Newman. She missed out on the other two which were submitted a few
years later. Hah!
Peak 3,166ft
Back some miles to the west, just off Sierra Hwy, Peak 3,166ft is another easy
summit. A mis-signed (a "Mint Canyon Rd" appears to be misplaced)
dirt can be found north of the summit that makes the
3/4mi ascent fairly tame. A little cross-country above the transmission tower
leads to a use trail of the ridgeline leading to the
highpoint with views overlooking the Agua Dulce community to .
Peak 3,180ft
This was the last of five peak in the Magic Mtn Wilderness that I wanted to
visit before the chaparral grows back with a vengeance. It is located near the
western edge of the Wilderness, a mile and a half from the encroaching
development east of Sand Canyon Rd. Access is a little tricky and may not be
entirely legal. It seems the Water Dept owns the land between the homes and the
adjacent National Forest, restricting access to the forest lands. The Water Dept
property appears to be used for flood control, funneling runnoff from the
mountains away from the relatively new homes, with signs and fences to restrict
public access. I had initially planned to start from the cul-de-sac at the
end of Saddleback Rd, but the signs discouraged me. Instead, I used
to a water tank off Live Oak Springs Canyon Rd, that
featured a No Trespassing sign but no fence to deal with. I walked up the road
, then followed around the fenced water tank on a use trail
that soon took me past the , noted by a sign. Past this,
I had to scramble up steep, untrailed & to reach
easier ground 800ft higher. The last half of the hike was a stroll along
to reach the . The whole
outing took a bit under 2hrs. A week later as I
was writing this trip report, I noticed that Rich Wilson had climbed this
three days after me and Julie Gregg, whose TRs I been using for many of the
peaks in the area, two days after Rich. I'm not sure if that was purely
coincidental or if there are folks stalking me. :-)
Uptopia Lookout
This is a mysterious PB-only summit located near the junction of Sand Canyon
Rd and Placerita Canyon Rd. It was named by Patrick O'Neill upon his visit
three years earlier, for the unusual security surrounding the adjacent Sable
Ranch on the west side of the summit. He had imagined it was some sort of
commune with strict rules and security but later concluded it was probably the
fact that it is often used as a movie set that garners the security detail.
The actual summit is just inside the NF boundary above the Live Oak Campground.
The campground was closed due to storm damage but that didn't stop me from
finding my way to the summit. Others have reported this an awful bushwhack, but
its were burned in the 2016 fire and no trouble at all today,
save for a small I almost stepped on during the ascent.
From I could see a construction project at
, what looked like a huge, 300-foot metalic
or dragon of some sort, only partially
completed. Upon my return I was met by a portly, friendly sort of guy who
asked if I'd enjoyed my hike. In a polite manner, he wanted me to know that the
summit is on private property (in fact, it's not - the Forest Service boundary
extends to just west of the summit). I told him I had seen the signs down by
the creek, avoided them, and saw no fences or signs up higher. He said he'd let
the owners know about that. He then asked if it was ok to take a picture
of my license plate to which I had no objection. He further asked if I had my
driver's license he could look at to which I replied, "Who are you, exactly?"
When he identified himself as Sable Ranch security I declined to produce my
driver's license which he seemed ok with. As he got back in his car to leave
I took of
his vehicle just for laughs. After this fun
encounter, I drove over to the closed campground where I took a shower before
heading back to town for dinner.
Continued...