Hiked Tuesday, August 5. Hiking to Mount Disappointment is pretty much the same as hiking to
hiking to San Gabriel Peak, except that, when you get to the saddle between San Gabriel Peak (to your east) and Mount Disappointment (to your west), you turn west, instead of east.
Going west means staying on the pavement as it curves up around to the north side of Mount Disappointment.
Otherwise, the directions to the trailhead and heading up through the oak forest, then finally meeting the pavement after 1.3 miles is all the same.
It also means you'll get some nice views to your north, where the air is usually clear and the views across the San Gabriel Mountains can be quite expansive.
It's not as steep or as long a climb from the saddle to the flat-topped, antenna-covered summit of Mt. Disappointment as it is to the more pristine summit of San Gabriel Peak.
You also won't be able to look over Mt. Wilson from Mt. Disappointment--San Gabriel Peak blocks that view. But you will still have a nice view over the LA Basin, at least if there's no marine layer and not too much smog.
For me, the skies were not perfectly clear, but clearer than it was on my previous hike to San Gabriel Peak. So I shot more pictures looking south and southwest this time than I did last time. I was also able to see the Griffith Observatory from the mountain top; the photo directly above is a crop of the one before that, and shows the Observatory relatively clearly, though you'll still have to click on the picture to see the enlarged version to make out the Observatory.
As this hike is a little shorter than going to San Gabriel Peak, and as I didn't stay up there as long since I had done much of this hike so recently, I still managed to get back to the car before it got completely dark.
But this was back in early August. I'm not sure if there's still enough sunlight after work for me to do this hike on a weekday afternoon.
In fact, as the days get shorter (the sun now sets before 7:30pm), I'll probably be mostly limited to short Echo Mountain and First Water hikes for the next month or so, until the days get so short that I'll be limited to hiking on days off and weekends.
One fun thing about hiking around sunset is that you get a lot of chances for shadow selfies. Here's me, up near the the top of Mount Disappointment, projected on a pine tree.
Not sure of the distance. I'll guess about 3.5 miles. Just enough to make the hike feel worth it.
Still many hikes remaining to be blogged. And I've also got a bunch of Downtown LA pictures to post. Not sure which I'll do next.
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