Northshore Peak, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Hiked Friday, April 30. First of two hikes over the weekend.

I had hiked here just a month an a half previous, but ran out of time and was not able to make the short Class 3 pitch up tot he peak. This time, I had much more daylight, so the lighting wasn't as pretty, but there was plenty of time to summit and return.

Details on how to get to this trail, and the hike, were mentioned in the linked post. It's not an exact science, though. You just look across the road from the parking lot, figure about where you want to go, and walk in that general direction.

There actually are sections with pretty well-defined trail, but the area is so barren that you can take any one of a number of routes to reach the crest. Still some rather tall dried grass, however, during which, I was reminded to maybe take some care about where I put my foot down.

Actually one of the first good views of a rattlesnake I've had in a while. In some years, I've managed numerous sitings. And, in fact, not only did I see this guy, but I also saw a small garter snake and a huge diamond back during my next hike. No picture of the former, but the latter will make an appearance in my next post.

Not many flowers on this hike, though. These were pretty much it. Plenty more flowers on my next day's hike. But, even there, the flowers were hardly thick, but there was a bit of variety.

Selfie of me as I achieved the ridge.

After reaching the ridge, you can pretty much stay near the ridge until you're encountered by a short but steep break in the ridge. From there, a short backtrack east and south takes you to an easy walk around. Nice view through the narrow break between the protrusions, though.

That's where I had to turn around, last time. Sun was already down, and I didn't want to have to make my way back to the car in the dark. Well, really, I didn't want to have to descend the mountain in the dark. I knew once I reached the flatter start of that hike, I'd be fine, but the earlier part was going to be steep.

This is where the short Class 3 segment is encountered. It's not at all exposed, with plenty of hand and footholds, so it's easy for anyone of nominal coordination and non-toddler height (IMHO).

Obviously, the view is not dramatically different here versus where I ended, the last time, with the exception of looking west. Nice view overlooking Northshore Road, and nice views over some rugged-looking peaks. Very desolate-looking mountains near you, and Lake Mead, in the distance, both east and north.

It's undoubtedly a great view from up here. Sort of wish they had a more established trail, because that would minimize the many different trample paths to the mountain. Of course, that would also increase visitation. From the top, you do have some serious potential dropoffs, and I suppose they might be worried about that. But it's no more precarious than the overlook near Liberty Bell Arch, which does have a well-defined trail to take you there.

My Alltrails app said it was about 3.8 miles roundtrip for me, and a bit under 1000 feet of vertical. If I hadn't wandered somewhat off track on return, it would have been less. So figure likely about 3 1/3 mile and 950 feet of elevation for a more efficient route. No technical skills required, but take some care, both so that you don't step on a snake, and so you don't take a long fall.

Mount Lowe and San Gabriel Peak from Eaton Saddle

Hiked Tuesday, April 6. Squeezed this one in after work.

I recently (closely) reviewed the new (mid-March) Bobcat Fire closure order, and discovered that San Gabriel Peak and Mount Lowe were now outside the closure area, as was most of the Old Mount Wilson Toll Road, and most of the old Mount Wilson Trail (but not the uppermost section, and not entry into the Winter Creek drainage). So, immediately after work, off I went.

Recent trips up here had been via the trailhead near Red Box Junction. In particular, I started from there to get a nice view of Comet Neowise, last summer. But I have hiked from Eaton Saddle numerous times, as well. Can't find any of my blogged hikes, at the moment, however!

You reach Eaton Saddle by taking Mount Wilson/Red Box Road, up from Angeles Crest Highway and Red Box Junction, towards Mount Wilson. When you first see sky in front of you, you're at Eaton Saddle. The actual road makes a left, here, and heads east, to Mount Wilson. But there is a small parking area at the saddle, on the right side of the road. The dirt road is gated to motorized vehicles, but obvioulsy hikers, bikers, or horses can proceed.

After a short 1/4 mile or so, the trail goes through a World War II-era tunnel. The road is dirt, with a fair amount of rocky debris fallen over it, in places. Easy hike, but you do need to watch for rocks, so you don't kick or trip on them.

Rather impressive drop-offs adjacent to this road.

Another 1/3 of a mile or so after the tunnel, you reach another saddle. San Gabriel Peak is to your right (it was right in front of you when you started on this trail, as well). Mount Markham is to your left. Mount Lowe is not visible, but is further, past Mount Markham. Straight ahead on the road would take you down to Lowe Camp.

Since I wasn't sure about how much daylight I had, I decided to do the longer peak hike, first. So left, up towards Mount Lowe.

Site tubes are at the top, pointing out the various peaks visible from the promentory. There are also some swings.

I only stayed briefly, then headed back down, hoping to bag another peak.

There were a pair of hikers at the top of Mount Lowe when I got there. They left shortly thereafter, but I caught up to them by the time we got to the ridge of Mount Markham. Had they continued down towards Eaton Saddle, I likely would have tried bagging Mount Markham. But since they stepped aside and paused there, I continued towards Eaton Saddle.

Once there, I deduced I did have time to bag San Gabriel Peak. Headed up there, where I encountered three hikers and one baby in a carrier. Those were the only other hikers I saw on this day. I wore a mask, as is my nature, even though I was well-past two weeks after my second Pfizer dose. Figured the people I might run in to wouldn't know that, and I figured it is still the responsible thing to do. After all, 95% immunity is not 100% immunity.

Again, stayed only briefly before heading down. The sun set just before I reached the summit, so I knew it would be pretty dark by the time I got back to my car. But it's a wide trail (albeit, with the substantial dropoff, previously noted), and I had my phone for light, if I needed it. I did, but only when passing through the tunnel. Otherwise, city lights always do a satisfactory job of lighting the way, if you've got a clear view towards the city.

Got a decent shot of the Big Dipper, just before I got in my car to drive home. About 5.6 miles, and 1,500 feet of gross elevation gain, according to Alltrails. Either peak is a pretty easy, post-work hike in the spring. Fitting both in requires a bit more time, or a bit more daylight.

Millard Canyon and Eaton Canyon Waterfalls, above Altadena, CA, March 2021

Skipped over a number of hikes, and now I've done several hikes after this one, too. That's sort of good news for me, since it means I'm getting in a lot more hiking than in recent years.

This is two separate hikes. The first, from mid-March, was up to Millard Canyon falls. This one can be pretty, and even a thundering roar, after heavy rains. This year has been drought conditions in southern California, so, although this is as heavy as I've seen it, recently, that's mainly due to it being dry or nearly dry the past few times I was up here.

This makes the falls "nice," rather than "impressive." But "nice" is nice. :D

The parking area down at Millard Campground is still only open on weekdays [as of this writing -- it has likely changed, since], though you'd still be obligated to display your Adventure Pass or federal recreation pass from your rearview mirror.

I also hiked up to the Sunset Ridge trail, and wandered over to an overview of the falls. Falls were not impressive, at least not with my cell phone.

I've found on recent hikes I just carry my cell phone, rather than my DSLR. I have two of them, but my smaller, "crop sensor" one is acting up, and my full-frame one is heavy. I'm deliberating if I will try to repair or replace my crop sensor one (a Nikon D3400). It's about half the weight of a full-frame dslr, and that's enough to matter when I'm packing a day pack.

Passed a relatively large number of hikers (for such a short hike), but all wore masks.

I also hiked Rubio Canyon between these two hikes, but no pictures are included, and I won't separately blog it. Even the lower falls were dry, which did not surprise me, given the year's lack of rainfall.

For Eaton Canyon, I hiked in via the Altadena Crest Trail, same as last time. Apparently, I've been doing this for some time, but, this year, it's been a necessity. The Pinecrest gate is still locked, access via the Nature Center is limited, and temporary fencing prevents walk-in access between the Nature Center and Pinecrest. I suppose you could probably walk in from further down the canyon, but I haven't checked this. Figured the Tanoble access was better, anyway, since it's an official trail, and they can hardly get mad at you for walking on an official trail, right?

Passed a couple of people on the Altadena Crest Trail, and only three or so inside Eaton Canyon. About half wore masks. The young couple in the canyon was not wearing masks, but they were far from the trail.

Eaton Canyon was flowing nicely, though, again, as expected, somewhat low for the end of March.

Spoiler for a later post, by the way: This week, I took the Altadena Crest Trail, then headed up to Henninger. Signage along the Toll Road indicates the route is open, although the visitor center and bathrooms are closed (which, let's face it, was often the case, even before COVID).

I like the Tanoble option for Eaton Canyon. It makes it a little longer, and with more climbing than even if you come from the Nature Center. Much better workout, and, at least for now, the only way to visit Eaton Canyon after 5pm. Not sure when they'll lift the COVID restrictions.

Other "coming attraction" blogs include another Trip to Valley of Fire, in NV, and a truck trail hike near Morton Peak, in the San Bernardino National Forest. I also hiked around Schabarum Park, on Cesar Chavez Day.

Oh, yes, and last night, I hiked from Eaton Saddle to Mt. Lowe and San Gabriel Peak. Yeah, it's been a pretty good last month or so of hiking.

I also hiked the McCullough Hills/Trail 601 trail [Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, NV] at least once that I haven't blogged, yet. Hopefully, that's all.

The other thing I just started doing was contemplating some short summer trips, like long weekends and what not. A while ago, the Joshua Tree National Park ranger who's newly in charge of the Joshua Tree Night Sky Festival set the Saturday of Labor Day as the tentative date for 2021, if COVID restrictions were lifted. I'm starting to feel pretty confident that this will happen. So I also started idly checking vacancies at some of my favorite national parks. Looks like April and May are pretty much booked, which is how I started thinking about summer. June and July, I started seeing availability in Grand Canyon, Zion, and Cedar Breaks. Not sure if I'll try to visit one or more of those this summer, but it's a definite possibility. Don't want to wait too long and have all availability disappear.

At any rate, that's just me thinking out loud, and maybe reminding you to start thinking about making reservations, if you're planning on traveling this summer.

Melcanyon to Mt. Bliss, Above Duarte, Angeles National Forest, CA

Hiked Sunday, March 21. First day of spring! Also, a week after DST, so I've got good afternoon time for hiking. Late start. According to the timestamp on my photos, I didn't get started until about 3:30pm. But I managed over 11 miles for the day. Mt. Bliss would have even gotten me back by sunset, except for a wrong turn I took.

In terms of timing, this hike was sort of like my first time up there, in the sense that I came down in the dark. Amazingly, that was over ten years ago, during my first 100 hike year. At least my third time to the top of Mt. Bliss, however.

As is usually the case this year, I was looking for a hike where I would likely be able to maintain some separation between me and any large group of unmasked hikers, and this one did not disappoint. I only saw four other hikers over the course of 4 1/2 hours. Also, the trail is nearly entirely Van Tassel Motorway, wide enough for a firetruck.

This trail starts on the mountain-side of the corner of Opal Canyon Road and Brookridge Road, not far from the corner of Melcanyon Road and Brookridge Road. Foothill Transit bus 861 stops at this corner, in case you want to try a public transit hike, at some point. It's basically a scheduled neighborhood shuttle, but it does link to the Gold Line (City of Hope Station), as well as the "Murder Bus" (Foothill 187), among other routes.

Uphill from this corner, Opal Canyon is bsically a driveway, up past a house and to a gated water tank. If you climbed that fence, you'd be trespassing. However, if you walk around the fence, you've fine. On the other side of the little fenced off area, you'll discover a surprisingly well-defined trail, quickly heading up the hill. After maybe a 1/2 mile of weaving up the hill, the trail intersects with Van Tassel Motorway, the aforementioned dirt road used by SCE and CalFire, among others. The area burned in the 2016 Fish Fire. The more recent Bobcat Fire burned som of the upper reaches of this hike, as well.

Van Tassel Motorway starts down off of Encanto Parkway, but there's a horse property or horse leasee where the road starts, and I'm never sure where I'm allowed to park around there, so I've always started my hikes from the neighborhood. However, on the return of my first hike, I did return the other way, because I couldn't find my trail off the Motorway in the dark.

The Motorway is pretty steep and you gain altitude quickly. Some flowers are not uncommon in spring, even along the lower reaches. But it's been a pretty dry winte and spring, so not many flowers, this year.

When Van Tassel Motorway starts decending, that's where you veer off, on a spur road, to the right. That takes you up to a ridge, which you follow, to Mt. Bliss's summit.

It's not a very prominent summit, but you get a pretty good view, all around. Straight shot over the Mt. San Antonio, for example.

The last time I was up here, the summit was covered in tall grasses. This time, it was pretty barren, from that Bobcat Fire.

Somewhat hazy day, so the views were not as long as typical. I could only see as far as the Santa Ana Mountains, for example. No sign of San Jacinto or San Gorgonio. And, because of the setting sun, not very good clarity to the west, either.

When I headed down, I made the mistake of taking the "first" trail I saw, which headed down. After probably a mile and half, however, this road just ended. So I had a pretty long and steep climb, almost all the way back to Mt. Bliss, before being able to head down the proper road. It's funny, but somewhat typical of me that I'll try to hike by memory, and not always recollect correctly. But I did manage to find the trailhead, at least!

Because of my detour, it was pretty dark before I got to my car. Fortunately, there was the first quarter moon to help light my way. That's in addition to the bright city lights, of course. So as long as my trail was on the city-side of the hill, I actually needed to use my hand to shade myself from the city lights, or the glare was annoying.

Got back to my car about 8:30pm. Wow, almost five hours of hiking! According to my AllTrails recording (which had a hiccup along the way), I walked at least 11 miles, and had almost 4,000 of elevation gain (gross, not net). My fitbit for the day gave me credit for over 34,000 steps and over 450 floors (for the day, not just for the hike). It felt really good to go on my first afternoon/evening hike of the season.

I have several more hikes to blog. I'm afraid I've fallen behind, again, despite my limited hiking opportunities. Hope to get them up, soon.

Northshore Peak, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Hiked Friday, March 5. I have a Valley of Fire hike from a few weeks before this but still need to go over pictures. This post contains only my phone camera shots, plus a panorama that google automagically stiched together for me.

This was a late afternoon hike, after I drove up from the LA area. The title may seem odd, because I've previously posted for Northshore Summit. This is different. But if you look at the third to the last photo on this post, you'll see where I went.

You can park in the same lot but rather than going up the obvious trail past the vault toilet, you go back down, cross Northshore Drive, and head towards the left (east) end of the impressive Northshore Peak. You achieve the ridge, then head along or behind the ridge, working your way west. Mostly a walk up, until the last few peaks.

I'm pretty sure I got to the peak right of the notch (not the rightmost peak). Hard to tell, as I turned around before heading up that short, steep bit, as I was running out of daylight.

All of the pictures except the last were taken from the ridgeline. The panorama at top is looking east and northeast, towards Lake Mead. The second is from the second-to-last saddle I got to, shooting north. The top left of that photo is looking towards the east section of Bowl of Fire, which I also recent hiked. The ridge you walk along to for Northshore Summit is at the right. The next shot is looking more or less southeast, I think. Lake Mead is that way, too.

The next shot is looking a bit further east than the previous shots. The parking area for Northshore Summit is about 60 percent of the way from left to right, at the center, vertically. On the original (on my computer), I can zoom in and see the parking lot, then see the trail, heading atop the low ridge, into the shadow of the higher ridge, then along that higher ridge, to the summit, and beyond. From this angle I can see what AllTrails probably meant me to take to get to Bowl of Fire, although I can also see the ridgeline I took instead.

The last shot gives you an idea of how dark it was before I got back. Means I definitely turned around at the right time, because I made it off the steep section with light to spare, but then had to walk the last 3/4 of a mile or so in late twilight. Couldn't see very well, but the lower section is sort of cross-country, anyway, and there are no dropoffs or even significant rocks to trip over. Just need to avoid the creosote bushes.

Set the ISO to 6400, opened my zoom up to f/4, 24mm, for 1/2 second. Tilted the camera back, with one edge resting on the car roof, and tried to hold still. Orion is visible pretty easily, which I guess is all I figured I could get, under the circumstances.

Only about 2.5 miles for the day, with about 900 feet of elevation gain. Short, but somewhat slow going, as there was a fair amount of picking and choosing and backtracking, trying to find the easier route up and down the ridge. Pretty spectacular views from the top, though. I'll likely return when I have a bit more daylight, to reach the official summit.

East Section of Bowl of Fire, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Hiked Saturday, January 23. Having explored sections of the Bowl of Fire on my two previous hikes, today was supposed to be a longer hike, approaching from the Northshore Summit trail.

I had hiked the short Northshore Summit trail several times before. Most recently was last October, but I have been up there at least twice, previously. Can't find my older posts, though, so maybe I never blogged it? Odd.

Northshore Summit trailhead is one of the few formal hiking trailheads indicated on the Lake Mead hiking handouts. A link to the recreation area's designated hiking areas is here..

The "official" (NPS) hike from this trailhead is a short one, just to the top of a bluff that's north of Northshore Drive. Great view from there, though. However, even on my first hike there, I noted a trail crossing the desert, far below. Figured that one day I would investigate that, though I had no idea what I might see.

Turns out the "what I would see" was a lot more spectacular than I would have imagined.

From the top of the bluff, the trail continues another 1/4 mile or so, running along the edge of a steep dropoff. Portions of Bowl of Fire are visible to the north and northwest. Relatively flat alluvial plains stretch to the north and northeast, with that plain crisscrossed by flood gullies and washes of varying widths.

The ridge itself descends just a bit as it curves to the northeast. From that northeast end, a well-defined use trail made its way, yes, somewhat steeply in parts, but not dangerously steep, nor dangerously exposed, down into the alluvial plain, below. I followed the trail that way.

Note, by contrast, my AllTrails app indicates a turn left to stay on the "trail" some distance before that. I did not see a more apparent trail before "mine," however, so I don't know if the indicated trail has since been eroded away, or if the "trail" is just a sort of "suggested direction" thing that was drawn from above, but not actually walked. If the trail is still in use, it must require a pretty steep drop to get to.

After a relatively brief section of steepness, my trail eased its way along the edge of a small wash, before eventually dropping down into the bottom of that ravine. There was a small pile and line of rocks at the intersection, so, on the return trip, the point to leave the wash was easy to see.

After a spell, this wash ran into another, wider wash, and another small duck of rocks. I made a left, there.

More weaving within the wash, until a wide wash inflow came in from the right. A stack of rocks there indicated another turn, so I headed up this other wash leg. Stayed in this broad wash for nearly a mile, until I saw a narrow canyon, heading in from the left. I saw a marker some distance up this side canyon, so I thought this might be the way to go. In retrospect, looking at my completed AllTrails recording, I "should" have stayed in the main channel. Nonetheless, both paths would eventually lead to where I was heading.

The marker in this side canyon told me I was crossing over into a Wilderness Area. So, apparently, the main wash (also a jeep trail) runs along the Wilderness boundary.

My side canyon "ended" at a dry falls. It would have taken some skill to scale the actual drop. But, just a few yards before the falls, ways out of the canyon were easy to manage. As always, I attempted to stay on either sand or hard rock as I climbed out and about. Didn't want to damage any cryptobiotic soil, nor the plants, strugging to grow in small patches of soil among the sandstone.

It's a wonderland of rocks here, similar to what I saw on my hike to the middle-western section Bowl of Fire. As the previous day, then, my horizontal progress slowed to a stop, as I explored the eroded sandstone around me. Lots of zigzagging, again, trying to minimize my impact on the land before me, but also to position myself for lots of picture-taking.

After an hour or so, while covering only about 1/2 mile of horizontal distance (lots of picture taking), I was starting to feel a little tired, too tired to keep looking for low-impact routes onward. Also, a fair distance to return awaited, and I knew it would end with a pretty substantial climb out of the washes and up to Northshore Summit. Didn't want to be too tired heading backout, as that would increase my chances of slipping.

So I retraced my steps, seeing familar waypoints along the way, and adding them to my AllTrails recording.

Incidentally, this time, I not only brought an external "spare" battery to recharge my phone, but I also brought a cord to plug it in! This let me record on AllTrails for the entire trip. On several previous trips, concern over draining my phone battery too quickly meant I only recorded the return leg. I will need to make a spare battery a regular part of my hiking gear.

As another aside, the second photo on this post? I thought it looked like the same sort of stone that held ancient footprints on previous trips. I have no idea if I'm seeing actual footprints here, or just some semi-regular, pecurliar erosion marks. But I took a photo, just in case.

As with all of my Blogspot posts, clicking on the photos in the posts produces a much large version of the picture to view. Much more detail to be seen, that way.

According to AllTrails, my entire hike was 7.15 miles, with an elevation gain of 846 feet. I didn't venture far beyond the start of the red sandstone start of the Bowl of Fire. Had I gone another 1/2 mile or so further west, I'd have (in theory) crossed my January 10 hike. Two miles past that would have reached my hike from the previous day.

Northshore Summit trailhead has an actual parking area, and a vault toilet. That's in contrast to the Mile 18.2 trailhead used on the previous two hikes into Bowl of Fire, which had neither.

As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I had never even heard of "Bowl of Fire" until a few weeks ago. Since then, I've been seeing lots of posts about it on the Explorers of the Mojave Desert Facebook page. Not sure if it's become more widely known, or if I just never noticed those posts before I knew where it was. Either way, some pretty dramatic scenery, and a bit off the beaten path. On this hike, I didn't see any other hikers, once I got away from the trailhead. For four hours of hiking, that's pretty amazing. So, no problem maintaining proper social distancing.

Still some pretty extensive areas of Bowl of Fire I didn't get to. May try more of a thru-hike next time, with less time photographing, just to get a sample of the rest of the area.