Continued...
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 can
easily be followed to .
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 bars
further vehicle travel, but the continuing road makes for an easy walk most of
the way. It goes by the , an interesting but
mostly obsolete site that seems to see little use. The road continues past the
observatory, at a small saddle half a mile from the locked gate.
From there, a use trail of sort follows along an old firebreak, some
useful until it runs out on the west side of the summit. Here,
the going gets tough with , 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 took me less
than 10min - hardly nightmarish. is pretty boring - broad
and uninviting. If there is a benchmark under there somewhere, I didn't find
it. It took another 25min to to the van.
Peak 5,580ft
I drove a few miles north on SR2 to the , about 1/3mi
east of Peak 5,580ft. 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 with Mt. Mooney
behind it. To can be seen the much higher summits of Waterman
Mtn and Twin Peaks.
Peak 6,629ft
With even than the previous peak, Peak 6,629ft is
easily managed in about 20min roundtrip. It lies a short distance
, about half a mile west of Camp Glenwood. There is a very
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 on the north side of
the saddle between the two summits with a nice looking south
into the San Gabriel Wilderness. There is an indistinct use trail going up to
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 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 (I
considered climbing it as an easy bonus until I realized it wasn't
that
easy) and through where I found a father and son
still enjoying their morning campfire. There were some patches of
on and along the trail, but none of any significance to hinder travel. From
I turned 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 . I rejoined the trail,
then made my way about a mile to , a simple rounded summit
with limited views due to the trees. There was 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, and a return
to , 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, crosses the highway
here and I would use it to make 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 . 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 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...
Continued...