Continued...
Topanga State Park
Having spent the night in the vicinity of Malibu SP in the Santa Monica Mtns, I
was up early and driving Las Virgenes Rd (aka Malibu Canyon Rd) south, hoping
to avoid the morning rush hour. I was partially successful, but still found lots
of folks driving this beautiful canyon road at speeds indicative of impatience,
honed from years of driving this same stretch of asphalt with any appreciation
of the surrounding scenery lost through years of familiarity. I pulled over a
few times to let people pass and get on with the important work of holding up
their pillar of the US economy. The fruits of this work are evident everywhere -
lavish homes with amazing views are built up on the mountainsides, along the
beaches and up in the exclusive canyons between Malibu and Santa Monica. One
hopes their owners have the time to enjoy them.
I ended up at the
at the south end of Topanga State Park,
near Will Rogers State Beach, west of Pacific Palisades. I was here to hike a
couple of unnamed summits within the park, repeating a loop hike of Mike
Sullivan's, gleaned from the PB website. There is ample parking (on a Tuesday
morning, anyway) on the east side of Los Liones Dr across from the mormon
church. I followed the loop in a counter-clockwise fashion, but in hindsight
it would probably have been better in the other direction. The Los Liones
Canyon Trail I went up is maintained and well-graded, whereas the descent from
Parker Mesa Overlook was informal, unmaintained and eroding - better for
going up than down. The lower part of the Los Liones Canyon Trail is
with heavy vegetation, grasses and a great variety of
trees
including many non-native species that have found their way into the various
canyon forks. As one climbs higher, views begin to open towards
to Castellammare Mesa and the Pacific Ocean, a nice
located about half
an hour's time up the trail. An hour and quarter's time saw me to the main
junction between the two ridges of the loop I would travel. An outhouse, trash
and recycling bins are conveniently ,
though I noted a high amount
of discarded toilet paper along my ascent route - when you gotta go, you gotta
go - of course it's a personal choice to leave the paper in the trail for the
rest of us to enjoy...
Just above the junction to the north is Peak 1,614ft, my first stop. An old
firebreak provides a useful trail to gain access to without the
need for bushwhacking. Views from the top are due to
surrounding brush and the summit's flattish topography.
I continued west off the old firebreak to
return to the main trail, then continued north for another half hour to the
higher Peak 1,629ft which I found to be a better summit with more open views.
There is a final up an eroding use trail that makes it
fairly easy to reach , again no bushwhacking involved. Here one
can look west into ,
a main artery between the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific
Coast. The main trail, really a wide dirt road, continues north for many miles
up to Mulholland Drive and the crest of the Santa Monica Mtns, but it was at
Peak 1,614ft that I turned to head back towards the coast. I went past the
junction a second time, and then south to Parker Mesa Overlook (also called
Parker Mesa Summit) where there are more
and really nice views
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was not hard to find the unsigned,
descending from Parker Mesa Overlook back down to
. I
returned before 10:30a, the whole outing taking less than 3.5hrs.
After returning to the van, I paid a visit to the Castellammare Mesa and Parker
Mesa highpoints. The former is between two homes under the
uneasy view of an open window on one house. The latter is in
another dense neighborhood, the highpoint having been bulldozed when the
development was built. Mostly just drivebys, these two.
San Vicente Mtn / Peak 1,986ft
Some nightmarish driving through Santa Monica and on the 405 freeway got me
to Mulholland Drive on the crest of the range. The western end of the pavement
ends at the Upper Canyonback Trailhead where there is a gate to the dirt/gravel
continuation of the road heading west. The gate is unlocked during the daytime
up to San Vicente Mountain Park where there is a second gate, permanently
locked, to the road continuing west along the crest. I drove the van up to this
second gate and
where a few other vehicles were found. San Vicente used
to be the site of a Nike radar installation, now converted to a public park
devoted to the Cold War site that once stood guard over the LA Basin, ready to
repel attacks by Soviet bombers back in the 1950s and early 60s. The
development of ICBMs rendered
the entire Nike defense system obsolete, but it took several more decades before
the site was decommissioned. I was here to hike to the summit of San Vicente,
rather easy, and unnamed Peak 1,986ft about a mile to the south. There is a
large that one can climb to up a set of steel
stairs at San Vicente, taking in of the
, also called the
Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park. It's not officially designated as
Wilderness, but it gets treated as such (except that bikes are allowed),
forming the largest parcel of land in the Santa Monica Mtns without pavement.
San Vicente's highpoint,
not counting the observation platform, is located just to the
north behind a fenced area with a small telecom installation - nothing special
to be found here. I then hiked the dirt road south to Peak 1,986ft, using the
old firebreak above the road to reach . Views
are into Sullivan
Canyon, the center of the Big Wild. One can see large sycamores down in the
canyon and I imagine the dirt road found there would make for another nice hike
in favorable weather conditions. It was 12:30p by the time I returned to the
van, having spent an hour on the 2mi+ hike with only modest gain.
Peak 1,570ft
I returned to the pavement of Mulholland Dr and headed east through the upscale
neighborhoods of Beverly Glen in the eastern part of the range separating the
San Fernando Valley from the LA Basin. I was after a couple of minor
peaks, the first of these Peak 1,570ft. The summit area is entirely in private
hands, though not inaccessible. There is a KCRW-FM antenna near the highpoint,
other smaller telecom installations, and what looks like could be a
hilltop mansion but is really some sort of run-down utility building that sees
little use. Others have reported approaching from Briarcrest Rd to the south
where there are several gates that may or may not be open. I chose to approach
from the northeast off Skyline Dr which was surprisingly easy. The neighborhood
is ungated and parking on the street is legal and ample. There are no fences
or signs to keep one from simply climbing up
to .
Some concrete drainage ditches are helpful at the top where it is
steepest. Once at the top of the slope I walked around the north side of large
building and then
of the fence around the FM antenna to reach found at the
west end of the summit area. There's not much and
were hazy, but there seemed little chance of being
discovered on most of the route (there are a few homes within easy view while
climbing ,
but what residents hang out in the yards of these
high-end homes? I returned the same way and quietly left the neighborhood.
Briar Summit
Further east along Mulholland Dr (which seems to be loaded with open-air
looking at homes of the rich & famous)
can be found Briar Summit and the Open Space
Park in which it lies. The land is owned by the LA DWP which maintains several
large water tanks near the summit, but the area is open to the public on foot,
except for the highest parts which are behind several fence lines. I parked to
the southwest off Briar Summit Dr, just outside the locked gate.
here are friendly and inviting for public use. I walked up
towards the summit, surprised to find two gates I
encountered and a third around the very top with
. This allows easy access to found
at the end of a set of old stairs going to an obsolete installation with
unobstructed in all . A surprisingly nice
find in a heavily developed area.
CCC Ridge
I spent about half an hour driving through more heavy traffic into Glendale
where I decided to stop at a Starbucks for several hours to while away some
time, avoiding the warmer hours of the day. As I was leaving, I noticed a poke
bowl place next door and got an order to go which I iced in the cooler for
my dinner later in the evening. I then headed up the Angeles Crest Hwy (SR2)
to do a few easy peaks in the late afternoon.
This is a short, easy hike off SR2 in the San Gabriel Mtns around 3,000-foot
elevation. I parked at that runs down the ridgeline
to a set of transmission towers less than a mile from the pavement.
is rather silly, created when the road was cut through
the ridge. A bit of easy cross-country from the south leads to the non-descript
highpoint with few redeeming qualities. After returning to the road, I continued
to check out found in a clearing. As luck
would have it, the guy and
his wife who've managed these bees for 40yrs came driving up. I tried to strike
up a conversation about his bees but he was a bit abrupt and didn't seem to
care much for me being around his bees. It didn't help that I had partially
blocked his access to the gate (my apology seemed to be only grudgingly
accepted).
Peak 4,751ft
With found just west of Ladybug Canyon,
I parked at a large clearing off SR2, about
1.5mi before Red Box Gap. The direct route up the east side, my first choice,
was too brushy so I looked elsewhere. Good thing I did, because I found a decent
use trail going up , steep but easy as pie. There is a USDA
at the summit and swell views of Mt. Lawlor to
, Mt. Wilson to and Strawberry Peak to
.
Peak 4,711ft (failed)
I next attempted to reach Peak 4,711ft on the south side of the highway, about
a mile SW of Peak 4,751ft. This began well, on the
which intersected the Gabrieleno Trail in about half a mile. Not knowing exactly
where this was going, I started following it uphill. By the treads on the trail,
it appears to be a popular downhill bike ride. The trail soon began climbing up
and east, away from my peak and after consulting the GPSr, I gave up the
enterprise - I was in no mood for a heavy bushwack late in the day and
especially with so many active ticks. I'll wait for someone else to figure this
one out first. I made a small loop of the route and then went back to the van.
Peak 4,724ft
Located a little more than two miles due east of Red Box Gap on the south side
of the highway, Peak 4,724ft forms
overlooking the San Gabriel
River to the south. I parked on the north side of the highway across from the
connecting ridgeline to the peak. An goes up a short distance
through the trees, then through buckthorn and manzanita
can be followed along nearly to the summit. Just before
reaching the West Ridge, some trees on the trail making a
bit of a mess requiring some
bushwhacking. The trail does not continue up the West Ridge, but the brush there
isn't bad and no real bushwhacking is required to make it to
. It was after 6:30p by the time I reached the top, but I
still managed to by sunset at 7p.
I found a very large turnout on the south side of the highway another mile up
the road, overlooking Trail Fork. It was far enough from the road as to be
almost unnoticeable and I enjoyed spending the night here. Despite the proximity
to the LA Basin, the only lights I could see were a few up on Mt. Wilson,
otherwise just miles and miles of the San Gabriel Mtns by moonlight. I showered
and enjoyed my poke bowl while watching a few episodes of Game of Thrones.
A good day...
Continued...