Category Archives: photography|landscape

Snow, Sadie and Mt. Baden-Powell

View southwest from Sadie Hawkins past Twin Peaks to Mt. Wilson
View Southwest from Middle Hawkins past Twin Peaks to Mt. Wilson

The snow was rock hard and covered with lodgepole pine needles and other debris. Having experience climbing snow and ice I can usually deal with a little early season snow, but I could see no way to safely cross this patch. The snow was steep and icy, the runout long and the risk high. My usual tricks for crossing short stretches of snow were not going to work.

Snowfall had been sporadic in Southern California over the Winter and this was the earliest in the Spring I had tried to do the out and back from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell. I had thought there might be some patchy snow on the north-facing slopes at the higher elevations, but I hadn’t expected it to be an issue.



Borrowing from river paddling philosophy, you never run (or hike, or ride) the same trail twice. I knew it was going to be an interesting day when a bighorn sheep darted from the trailhead at the beginning of the run. I’d followed bighorn tracks from Islip Saddle up the PCT for about a quarter mile to an overlook of Hwy 39 and Twin Peaks.

The view from the overlook had been spectacular. Marine layer stratus filled the canyon, nearly immersing Triplet Rocks on Twin Peak’s elongated east ridge. The stratus was evidence of a strong onshore flow, but above Islip Saddle a strong — and cold — wind was blowing almost directly out of the north. It had been cold enough that I pulled on my extra sleeves, ultralight shell and light gloves.

The wind was unrelenting and seemed to work its way around every corner and into every canyon. At Windy Gap and the other wind gaps along the crest the wind was funneled and accelerated, and I wondered if this would be the day I would see or hear one of the huge ghost trees from the Curve Fire crash to the ground.



At times I go where my camera takes me, and about a half-mile west of Mt. Hawkins it took me off the PCT and onto the Hawkins Ridge Trail. There are three peaks along this ridge —  Middle Hawkins, Sadie Hawkins and South Mt. Hawkins. It had been years since I’d done these peaks, and today it looked like there might be some good views from the ridge.

The Hawkins Ridge Trail was warm and mostly sheltered from the wind and I continued down the trail a little further than necessary before leaving it and scrambling up to the summit of Middle Hawkins. Warmed from the steep climb I had returned to the PCT and continued toward Baden-Powell.



Near the junction of the PCT and Dawson Saddle Trail there had been patches of snow mixed in with the chinquapin and limber pines, but it hadn’t been until the PCT skirted north around Mt. Burnham that the trail was blocked by snow. I abandoned the attempt to cross the icy patch and headed up the steep slopes of Mt. Burnham to the crest.

It was still cold and windy when I reached the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell, but a sparkling day with Mt. Baldy to the southeast across Vincent Gulch, San Jacinto Peak and San Gorgonio area peaks in the distance to the southeast, the Sierra to the north, and miles of stratus to the south. After spending a few minutes on the summit I retraced my steps back down the crest and the PCT to Islip Saddle, making the requisite stop at Little Jimmy Springs along the way.

Some related posts: San Gabriels High Five, La Nina Looming, Running Hot & Cold, Toward Triplet Rocks

Marine Layer from Angeles Crest Highway

Marine Layer from Angeles Crest Highway

A 5000′ deep marine layer produced some spectacular views along Angeles Crest Highway on the way to Islip Saddle this morning. The peak on the right just above the clouds is 5409-foot Monrovia Peak. Peaks of the Baldy group can be seen in the distance on the left.

The plants on the left with the red blossoms are scarlet bugler.

Unwinding from the Backbone Ultra

Bear Canyon
Bear Canyon

Doing a moderate run in the San Gabriels and climbing a few peaks was a great way to unwind from the excitement of doing the 68 mile Backbone Ultra last weekend.

I felt good. I’d run more or less normally in the week following the event — depleted, but without any physical issues. In part that can be attributed to how Coyote Cohorts runs their events. It was basically a long training run in the company of a great bunch of runners and the help of incredible volunteers. Amazing! The long hours of training also really helped, particularly the back-to-back runs following 50Ks and the back-to-back night/day training runs. My shoes — Hoka Mafate 2s — also helped, reducing the impact of all the miles.

Paintbrush on the San Gabriel Peak Trail near Markham Saddle.
Paintbrush on the San Gabriel Peak Trail

One of the reasons for doing today’s run was to check how Poodle-dog Bush and some other plants are faring in this low rainfall water year. Since July 1 Downtown Los Angeles has recorded only 5.14 inches of rain. Unless we can manage to wring about a half-inch of rain from the heavens before June 30, this water year will go down as the fourth driest since record-keeping began in 1877. The driest water year on record was in 2005-2006 (3.21 inches). Assuming we don’t get that 0.48 inch of rain, three of the four driest water years have occurred since 2000.

Something I noticed on the Backbone run and recent training runs in the Santa Monica Mountains is that plant growth and flowering has been surprisingly robust given the amount of rainfall. This was also the case today on today’s run — the manzanita on the San Gabriel Peak Trail was covered in blossoms and bees, and the nightshade and paintbrush along the trail also seemed to be doing well.

Prickly phlox along Calabasas Peak Mtwy.
Prickly phlox along Calabasas Peak Mtwy.

What about the Poodle-dog bush, aka Turricula? It looked about the same as last year at this time — just starting to come out of Winter dormancy. Last year we had above average rainfall in April and it really seemed to spur the growth of Poodle-dog bush. This year maybe we’ll see what an extended period of dry weather does to it. Last year some of the Poodle-dog died before the rain in April.

Here’s a short slideshow of a few photos from today’s run in the San Gabriel Mountains, as well as some photos of plants and flowers on recent runs in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Hikers on Calabasas Peak Motorway

Hikers on Calabasas Peak Motorway

The 1.6 mile hike (one way) from Stunt Road to the rocky overlook at the top of Calabasas Peak Motorway fire road is very popular and has some great views along the way. Some stretches of the road are steep, but there are also some moderate sections and even a short flat stretch to catch your breath.

The route gains about 800 vertical feet to the viewpoint. Although many turnaround here, even better views can be had from the nearby summit of Calabasas Peak. Continuing to the peak adds about a half-mile (round trip) and around 100′ of elevation gain.

From this afternoon’s run on the Secret Trail.

Some related posts: Calabasas Peak From Saddle Peak, Secret Trail Variations

Back on the Backbone Trail

La Jolla Valley and Boney Mountain from the east side of Mugu Peak.

What time was it? 1:00 AM? And I was going to get up at what time? 6:00 AM? And do what? Run to Mugu Peak?

It made sense a few days ago. Do a long night training run, sleep for a few hours, then get up and do another long run.

I couldn’t believe it when I woke at 6:15. OK… OK… I’ll give it a shot. Bleary-eyed, I drove to Wendy Drive.

The forecast was for another day of record-breaking highs. By Southern California standards most of the Winter had been cool and sometimes even cold. I was sure that a temperature of 80-something was going to feel more like 90-something.

Most of the first few miles of Sycamore Canyon were downhill, shaded and cool. As I passed the Danielson Multi-Use Area it was weird to think that last night we had turned around just a couple of miles up the Backbone Trail from here. Danielson will be around mile 59 of the ultra. Running in the dark and after many miles of technical single track trail, Sycamore Canyon road will hopefully provide at least a bit of mental relief. One foot in front of the other…

This morning I continued to follow the Backbone Trail down Sycamore Canyon and then up the Wood Canyon Vista Trail to the Overlook fire road. Here the Backbone Trail continues left (south) to the Ray Miller Trail. Today I turned right and at the 4-way intersection a little down the road turned left and headed into La Jolla Valley — one of the “must visit” places in the Santa Monica Mountains. Mugu Peak is on the south side of La Jolla Valley, and stands above the coast at Pt. Mugu.

The title photo was taken from the trail on the east side of Mugu Peak. The eastern part of La Jolla Valley is on the left (above the cactus) and La Jolla Canyon is on the right. Boney Mountain is in the distance. The Chamberlain segment of the Backbone Trail descends from near the high point on the right side of the skyline.



There are several ways to return to Wendy Drive from Mugu Peak and my favorite route is nearly all single track trail. Not today. Today wherever there was a choice I took the one that would have the most shade and water faucets. That meant descending Hell Hill instead of Wood Canyon Vista Trail, and running back up Sycamore Road instead of using the single track trails on the west side of the canyon.

It took a while, but eventually I made it back to the car.

Some related posts: Back to Mugu Peak; Laguna Peak, La Jolla Valley, and the Channel Islands