Hike 2012.072 -- Peppergrass Trail, Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Authority

Hiked Friday, November 2. Friday was my second consecu-tive day of hiking. Both were real short ones, but that's all I had time for, now that the sun is setting so early.

Been out this way a number of times, usually when time is short. I had a great hike here in February, even as I was coming down with my last cold (the one before the latest bout).

The trailhead is near the north end of Greenleaf Avenue in Whittier. That's the same road that runs through the heart of Old Town Whittier, which means that's a pretty slow drive if you go that way. I've made that mistake more than a few times, including on Friday.

The map of the trailhead of this trail is here. Once you walk off the right end of that map, you'd enter this one.

From the trailhead, I headed up the Pepper-grass trail, which is the one that heads to the east-northeast. It's a somewhat steep trail. Ignore the unsigned leg of the trail that cuts low and to the right.

When you reach a fork in the trial (4/10ths of a mile up), the Peppergrass is the steeper one, to the right. I also went over a few hills along the way, just for the fun of it.

After about 1/2 mile, the two trails merge, and continue climbing to the northeast. after 3/10ths of a mile, you run into the Rattlesnake Ridge trail. Rose Hills Memorial Park will now be visible, across the Rattlesnake Ridge Trail (which is a dirt road).

I made a right turn here. After 1/5 of a mile, the Rattlesnake Ridge Trail runs into the Sumac trail, which I had taken just a month ago.

Once I passed the Sumac trail, the path I took last month to the multi-colored watertank was in front of me. However, as change of pace, I walked down the lower (left) road, to see where it would take me.

It eventually did take me around to the other side of the watertank, but it's probably 3 or 4 times further that way than just heading up the steep trail.

I looped the long way around the watertank, then returned to the Rattle-snake-Pepper-grass junction. From there, I went briefly along the Rattlesnake, on up to the top of the rise near that junction. I took some more pictures there, and chatted briefly with a young man who was up there.

He had hiked in from the Turnbull Canyon road, and asked about where the trail to the south came from. I told him I had come from the Greenleaf access (Hellman Wilderness Park), and that there was also access to these hills from Seventh Avenue in Hacienda Heights. I like to think this means he'll be able to make a few more trips up this way in the future.

From here, it was on back to my car. I'd estimate 3.5 miles for the day.