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I had driven into the San Gabriel Mtns to do a handful of mostly easy summits off the Angeles Crest Highway (SR2), part of a meandering peakbagging week I was taking on my way to San Diego to meet my wife for the weekend. I was up before 6a and starting for the first summit just after 6:30a. The first five peaks I had in mind went much faster than I expected, leaving me time to craft a longer outing to visit Sadie Hawkins, a minor summit along Hawkins Ridge that I had bypassed unawares on my first visit there 10yrs earlier. Afterwards, I drove the remaining distance of SR2 to Wrightwood and then south the San Bernardino area with plans to hike around San Jacinto the next day.

Peak 5,420ft

This is a very easy summit, easily accessible from the wide, paved turnout at the saddle between Big Tujunga Canyon and Devils Canyon, the hike taking less than ten minutes. An old firebreak running along the ridgeline can easily be followed to the top. Only a week later did I realize I had climbed this peak a decade earlier when I had mistaken it for nearby Mt. Sally. It made for a nice place to greet the new day on the edge of the San Gabriel Wilderness, but otherwise a pretty simple summit.

Devil BM

This was the one I was most concerned about since TRs on PB described it as "nightmarish," "a bitch" and other colorfully descriptive terms that make one think this isn't going to be much fun. I was happy to find it not nearly so dire as descripted. I was able to drive the van up the dirt road to the saddle between Mt. Mooney and Devil BM. A locked gate bars further vehicle travel, but the continuing road makes for an easy walk most of the way. It goes by the Stoney Ridge Observatory, an interesting but mostly obsolete site that seems to see little use. The road continues past the observatory, ending at a small saddle half a mile from the locked gate. From there, a use trail of sort follows along an old firebreak, some flagging useful until it runs out on the west side of the summit. Here, the going gets tough with actual bushwhacking, but it's only 400ft and not really all that bad, despite it being mostly buckthorn. To put it in perspective, from the end of the flagging to the summit took me less than 10min - hardly nightmarish. The summit is pretty boring - broad and uninviting. If there is a benchmark under there somewhere, I didn't find it. It took another 25min to return to the van.

Peak 5,580ft

I drove a few miles north on SR2 to the Devil's Canyon TH, about 1/3mi east of Peak 5,580ft. Open cross-country travel leads to the summit with mostly open views thanks to fires that have denuded it of trees. The state highway maintenance station can be seen to the south with Mt. Mooney behind it. To the east can be seen the much higher summits of Waterman Mtn and Twin Peaks.

Peak 6,629ft

With even easier cross-country than the previous peak, Peak 6,629ft is easily managed in about 20min roundtrip. It lies a short distance north of SR2, about half a mile west of Camp Glenwood. There is a very large turnout with a picnic area on the south side of the road with a restoom - which of course means a forest adventure permit is required (annual federal lands pass works, too).

Peak 7,180ft

This unnamed summit lies south of SR2, on Kratka Ridge just east of the HPS summit of the same name. There is a picnic area on the north side of the saddle between the two summits with a nice viewbench looking south into the San Gabriel Wilderness. There is an indistinct use trail going up to Peak 7,180ft from the saddle, another 20min roundtrip effort.

Middle Hawkins/Sadie Hawkins

It wasn't even 10a when I finished up with the first five summits - I had expected them to take me much longer. Perusing my GPSr, I noticed there was a peak called Sadie Hawkins that I had missed on an earlier visit to the area when I was chasing HPS summits. It was a longish hike, about 10mi roundtrip, for a fairly minor summit, but the weather was so nice today and I had so much time remaining that it seemed a good way to occupy myself for about four and half hours. I started from Islip Saddle on the PCT, following it up for about 4mi from 6,600ft to just shy of 8,400ft at the crest where Hawkins Ridge Trail joins from the south. Along the way I passed by Mt. Islip (I considered climbing it as an easy bonus until I realized it wasn't that easy) and through Little Jimmy Camp where I found a father and son still enjoying their morning campfire. There were some patches of snow on and along the trail, but none of any significance to hinder travel. From the crest I turned south on the Hawkins Ridge Trail, making the short diversion to climb Middle Hawkins, less than half a mile south of the crest. From its summit, both Sadie Hawkins and South Hawkins could be seen through the trees to the south. I rejoined the trail, then made my way about a mile to Sadie Hawkins, a simple rounded summit with limited views due to the trees. There was a cairn and a register of loose pages, but it dated back only a few years and for some reason I didn't feel a need to add my own entry. After my short visit, I returned to the trail and retraced my route back up to the crest, along the PCT and a return to Islip saddle, finishing up not long after 2p.

Peak 7,580ft

Continuing east on the Angeles Crest Hwy, I found one more easy peak I could do from Vincent Gap. As at Islip Saddle, the PCT crosses the highway here and I would use it to make my way up to Blue Ridge in a little over a mile. The PCT was rerouted some since the topo map was last revised, as it now goes up and around the west side of Peak 7,580ft rather than the east side as depicted on the map. I left the trail when due west of the summit and made my way up through open terrain to the highpoint. There is a nice view to the south of Mt. Baden Powell, one of the few summits in the range still holding significant snow. It was 3:40p by the time I returned and time to call it a day, I decided. Lots of summits for moderate effort with fine weather conditions - another good day in my book...

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