An exceptional late afternoon trail run at Ahmanson Ranch last week as a weak cold front passed through.
Here are a few photos taken along the way.
Several popular trails and fire roads in Topanga State Park have been damaged by the cumulative effects of Winter 2022-2023 rainstorms.
Since December 1, 2022, the Topanga Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) has recorded nearly 16 inches of rain. The most rainfall occurred January 9-10, when about 5.4 inches was measured.
On Sunday, January 15, I did an exploratory trail run from the Top of Reseda that took me through some popular areas of the Park. This included Fire Road #30, the Hub, Temescal Peak, Temescal Lookout, Temescal Ridge Fire Road, Eagle Springs Fire Road, Eagle Rock Fire Road, the Garapito Trail, and the Bent Arrow Trail.
There were numerous mudslides on the fire roads. The larger slides were on Fire Road #30 below the Hub and Temescal Ridge Fire Road between the Backbone Trail junction and Temescal Lookout. There was also significant roadbed and shoulder erosion in places. At the time, all were passable on foot.
The trails were a different matter. Unfortunately, much of the repair work done on the Bent Arrow Trail following last year’s rain was damaged or destroyed.
The Garapito Trail was blocked in two places on the upper part of the trail. One problem was from a sluff of soil and brush sliding onto the trail. The other was from the collapse of a section of trail. There were additional sluffs, limbs, and washouts on the trail that were passable at the time.
Update February 5, 2023. The Bent Arrow Trail is closed. Fire Road #30, Eagle Springs Fire Road, and East Topanga Fire Road to Parker Mesa Overlook had all been cleared. The Musch Trail was eroded in spots but OK. Use of the Garapito Trail has moderated its condition. Some brush had been cleared and paths have evolved through the sections of collapsed trail. Extra care is required in some spots.
Here are a few photos taken along the way.
Other trails and fire roads in Topanga State Park likely had similar impacts. I would expect, like last year, sections of the Santa Ynez Trail lower in the canyon to be washed out.
Related post: Trippet Ranch Loop Plus the Santa Ynez Trail
La Ninas are fickle beasts, and particularly in a time of climate change, the existence of La Nina conditions in the equatorial Pacific is no guarantee of a dry rain season in Southern California.
According to preliminary rainfall data, from December 1, 2022, to January 16, 2023, Downtown Los Angeles (USC) recorded 11.01 inches of rain. This was 77% of the normal rainfall for an entire year.
This brings the Rain Year total precipitation for Los Angeles up to 13.38 inches — the sixth wettest for the date going back to 1877 — and 94% of the normal ANNUAL rainfall.
The forecast for the Los Angeles area (Saturday, December 10) was for a chance of rain in the afternoon, with rain developing overnight and continuing into Sunday morning. There was also a slight chance of light rain or drizzle in the Santa Monica Mountains in the morning.
It was overcast in the West Valley as I drove to the trailhead, and I wondered if my run would be dank and drizzly. But as I drove up Reseda Blvd. toward Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park, I was surprised to find patches of blue sky overhead.
I started the run a little before 7:00 a.m. and headed up the connecting single-track trail to dirt Mulholland and Fire Road 30. Many runs from the Top of Reseda start this way, and I turned onto Fire Road 30 and continued up to the Hub — about 2.5 miles from the trailhead.
For the first couple of miles, I wasn’t sure how long a run I would do or where I was headed. But as I neared the Hub, I had to make a decision. To a large extent, a decision that depended on the weather.
What had been partly cloudy skies had coalesced into a layer of clouds that just touched the top of the highest peaks. I’d been thinking about doing an out-and-back to High Point (Goat Peak), but if the weather continued to deteriorate, the only view I would see from the peak would be the interior of a cloud. I finally decided to give it a go and hope the peak didn’t get socked in with clouds and fog.
Turning left at the Hub onto the Temescal Ridge Fire Road segment of the Backbone Trail, I ran about a half-mile to where the Backbone Trail forks left off the fire road and becomes a single-track trail. This is the popular Rogers Road segment of the Backbone Trail that eventually ends at Will Rogers Historic State Park.
From Temescal Ridge Fire Road, it’s about 4.25 miles on the Backbone Trail to the unsigned junction with the High Point use trail. It’s on the right and easy to miss. The turnoff is about a half-mile before “The Oak Tree” landmark on the Backbone Trail.
The High Point trail is an unofficial, unmaintained path but is usually in decent shape. There are a couple of short, steep, loose sections on the way to the peak. Nothing is signed, and some side paths diverge from the main trail.
When I reached High Point’s summit, the weather was holding but looked more threatening. Even so, the view was excellent. Panning from east to west underneath the ceiling of clouds, the view included the San Gabriels, Downtown, West L.A., the South Bay, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Santa Monica Bay, and Catalina.
There were a couple of rogue sprinkles on the way back to the Top of Reseda, but the rain held off in the West Valley until late in the day.
Here is an interactive, 3D terrain view of the High Point (Goat Peak) Out and Back from the Top of Reseda. The map can be zoomed, tilted, rotated, and panned using the navigation control on the right. Track and placename locations are approximate and subject to errors. Poor weather and other conditions may make this route unsuitable for this activity.
Some related posts: High Point (Goat Peak) Via the Rivas Ridge Use Trail, Goat Peak and the High Point Trail
The clouds were associated with a front that stalled to the north of Los Angeles, resulting in some surprising and substantial rainfall totals in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. No measurable rain was reported in Los Angeles County by the NWS.
From an early morning run at Ahmanson Ranch (Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve) on September 20th.
Related post: Monsoon Clouds and Valley Oak at Sunrise on Lasky Mesa
After weeks of dealing with one heatwave after another it was a strange sensation. I was cold. I had on an extra shirt and sleeves, but the slopes of Mt. Islip were deep in shadow and the wind was gusting to 20 mph. The thermometer on my pack read 41 degrees, but the “feels like” temperature had to be in the 30s.
I was in the first mile of an out and back trail run from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell. A San Gabriels classic, the route gains (and loses) about 3800′ over 16.5 miles on the PCT.
This morning I was doing the basic out and back, but Mt. Hawkins, Throop Peak and Mt. Burnham are easy peaks that can done along the way. Mt Islip is is a bit more of a detour, but can also be added to the route.
It’s also possible to start the out and back at the Windy Gap Trailhead (5836′) in the Crystal Lake Recreation Area. The distance to Baden-Powell is about the same, but the lower trailhead adds about 800′ of gain.
As I chugged up one of the initial steep sections, I thought about what it must have been like for this year’s participants in the AC100. This year, because the AC100 was an out and back from Wrightwood to Shortcut Saddle, runners got to do this tough segment after running more than 75 miles!
Here is an interactive, 3D terrain view of the out and back from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell. The map can be zoomed, tilted, rotated, and panned using the navigation control on the right. Track and placename locations are approximate and subject to errors. Poor weather, and other conditions may make this route unsuitable for this activity.
Some related posts: Islip Saddle – Mt. Baden-Powell Out & Back, Mid January Trail Run from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell, Savoring the Snow Between Islip Saddle and Mt. Baden-Powell, Little Jimmy Spring Incense Cedar, San Gabriels High Five