Big Tugunga Creek - Stone Valley Trail to Moutn Lukens 

A Trip to the Top of Mount Lukens

Hi everyone.

I hope you are all well, and happy as can be. It's
midweek, and finally have time to share about the
adventures Java and I had this past weekend.

Because with height comes clarity Java and I set out
on Saturday to climb the highest point inside LA city
limits. Other than being the high point in the City
of Angels, Mt Lukens is notable for being the south
west most peak of the San Gabriel Mountain range.
locaed just north of the town of Sunland. It was once
the home of a fire look-out tower, but now houses a
large number of Radio towers, Cell sites, and repeater
stations; very much a monument to modern day
technology. One positive note from reaching the
summit was that both Java and I were irradiated from
top to bottom, so in theory we left the peak germ free
:-) Just exaggeration and kidding around of course -
I think! :-)

Once we actually found it, we discovered the that our
path to the top, Stonecreek Trail, was very well
maintained. It's a footpath with a constant,
moderately steep pitch, from the trail head to the
summit. The challenge in finding the trail after
crossing crossing Big Tujunga Creek. After spending
far too much time trying to find a dry means of
crossing I shed my foot-ware, and liberated Java from
his pack, then we proceeded to wade through the creek.

The creek itself is very nice, we passed a few spots
with some excellent swim holes. In fact there was a
small group that we encountered having the time of
their life jumping, diving, and splashing around.

Once past the creek, and after we back-tracked to find
it, the trail starts immediately up and only levels
out about 4 miles later at the top of ridge line to
the peak. Along the way, there are plenty of wild
flowers, grasses, ferns, small critters and birds to
observe. There is a nice granite rock formation
nestled in a ravine at the head of a small waterfall
about half-way up the trail. I had expected the trail
to be completely exposed, but after the first 1000 ft
of elevation gain, the trail was mostly under the
shade of oak trees, small conifers and the shade of
the mountain side.

Of course the higher we got the better our view of the
San Gabriels became, although not our visibility dis
not improve any. Regrettably, this past weekend the
greater LA area had some horrible air quality and what
would have otherwise been a spectacular view from the
summit, instead was a view of an endless, opaque brown
layer of smog that blanketed the entire LA basin as
far as I could see. To paraphrase my nephew Ariel,
who recently encountered the same sights, "Damn
Angelinos... take the bus already!"

The smog layer aside, the summit was still rewarding:
like I mentioned we got decontaminated, gratis; saw a
red feather hawk take flight and got a chance to see
the remnants of the snow that continues to linger our
local mountain tops.

Although considered strenuous (it was), in general the
hike was very good, and only slightly diminished by
the poor air quality.

Unlike the day before, Sunday was dedicated to
domestic endeavors, and my daily run.

Day Hike Summary: 8.5 miles total. 3300 ft elevation
gain, Summit Elevation = 5074 ft.

I'm glad to be alive, and loving it. I hope you are
too!

-Manny

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Summit View from Trail Crest Chute 

The Big One: Mount Whitney Climb

Hi everyone.  I hope you've had as good a weekend as I
did.

Today was a great day, a culmination of the previous
two day's activities, and some very nice and
thoughtful message I received from many of you -
Thanks for thinking of me!


Last weekend I took a break from my outdoor adventures
to attend Belen's, my niece, high school graduation.
Belen - Congratulations again on your graduation, your
scholarship, and for inviting me to celebrate with
you!


This past weekend I resumed my wandering - Many of you
know that this weekend was the "Big One".  The one
I've been preparing for, for months.  Well, I'll cut
to the chase:  Yup, I did it.  And, Yes, it was
awesome.

Any adventure worth recalling has some twists and
turns, some unexpected events, and certainly, this
past Friday and yesterday had a small bit of each.


For the past four months I've been planing and
preparing for a hike of Mount Whitney, the highest
point the United States - actually the lower 48
states, to be precise.  Mount Whitney is found in the
John Muir Wilderness Area, a national park, while the
trail that leads to the summit is maintained by the
inside the Inyo National Forest.

Because of the lottery permit process, being able to
get an opportunity to attempt Whitney is a big deal so
I was glad to have the chance to do a summit attempt.

What was originally planned to be a three day, family
event turned into a two day, solo journey.  The first
twist of events came when I went to pick up my permit
- I explained to the Ranger how my plans had been
altered and she offered to give me an overnight permit
instead of the Day permit that i was originally
issued.  After a quick mental assessment of my gear
and available time I took he made the change to my
permit and began my climb on Friday.

Once I cleaverly resolvd having left my crampons at
home, I left the Trail-head (8,360 ft) at 2:30pm, and
was at Trail Camp (11,984 ft) before 7:00pm.  There I
met several groups that had arrived earlier the same
day and the day before.  Along the way I hiked from
one impressive vista to the next; past numerous stands
of weather worn trees, past an untold number of
streams and large waterfalls from the abundant snow
melt.

The trail itself is extremely well maintained.  My
first impression of the trail was that it seemed like
a highway to the sky, and indeed it was.

The tree line is roughly at 10,500 ft, after which you
are enveloped in a world made exclusively of snow, ice
and rock.  A landscape made of granite edifaces; all
around you, shear walls of rock, thousands of feet,
stretching far into the sky.  But that was only the
beginning of the visual feast.

Although surrounded by an inspiring, rugged skyline
Trail Camp was a hard habitat for those of who chose
to  call it home for the night.  We all fruitlessly
battled the wind which rarely subsided below 20 mph,
and instead blew steadily at about 40 mph with gusts
in excess of 60+ mph.  Fortunately my tent survived
the night, however, only barely.  My rain-fly was torn
in several places, and a couple of tent pole sections
were noticeably bent.  This tough was far better than
some others in camp whose poles shattered completely
and their tents collapsed.  The only reason my tent
didn't get blown away was because in addition to
myself I supplemented it with about 60 pounds of large
rocks in the interior.  I think I maybe got a total 40
minutes of sleep during the night.  The next morning
everyone was equally haggard, and we all agreed; it
had been a miserable night.


Once everyone was up, half the campsite retreated to
lower grounds due to the difficult night, and others
because of altitude sickness.  Ten of us however
remained and made our bid for the summit.  Although
everyone broke camp before I did, the earliest ones
had over an hour start on me, I managed to pass them
all on the chute ascent, except the lead climber. 

The chute, between Discovery Pinnacle and Mount Muir,
was the crux of the climb.  It consists of a 1,200 ft
elevation gain in less than a quarter mile of travel.
The climb was arduous but the reward at the top was
absolutely magnificent.  From atop the crest trail I
found an unsurpassed vista: row, and row of snow
capped peaks, jagged ridges, deeply etched granite
faces, vasts forests, and frozen lakes.  It was only
at this point that I was grateful for the winds during
night before.  They had no doubt provided for the
pristine skies and the hundreds of miles of visibility
that I observed.

From the top of the chute the summit was a short two
mile hike over a narrow path, alternately bordered on
one or both sides, with drops of several thousand feet
to the valley floors on either side of the trail.  I
was the second person up to the summit and had it to
myself for close to an hour.

Once at the summit a whole new vista unfolded in front
of me - An unparralled 360 degree view: To the
Southwest the Golden Trout Wilderness, and the Sequoia
national Forest; to the West, Northwest, and North the
remaining portion of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range;
to the Northeast the White Mountain range; to the East
the Owens Valley and the Inyo Mountain range; to the
Southeast Death Valley; and to the south the peaks of
the South Sierras.

All along the perimeter of the summit you can approach
the edge, as I did, and look up, down and all around
to appreciate the height that you've scaled.  Perhaps
it was the thin air, the fatigue, or both, but while
at the summit I thought to myself:  For however much
we are capable of imagining, it fails in comparison to
the beauty that mother nature has in fact constructed
throughout the eons.

Trip Summary:  Two days, 22 miles, 6180 ft elevation
gain.  Maximum elevation 14,492 ft.  Travel times:  Up
to Summit, 7 hours.  Down to Trail head 5 hours.


Climbing Mount Whitney was great experience; and an
accessible one that I encourage all of you to attempt
someday - You will no doubt be the better for it.

Glad to be alive - And loving it!

A Tech Diversion

A Tech Diversion

So I couldn't resist talking about my new toy: the palmOne LifeDrive.

It's not perfect, but I'm enjoying it.

A Trip to a Castle

Hi. Hope you are doing well.

When I think of a castle, an image of mid-evil Europe
comes to mind; not the sun-kissed mountains of
Southern California. Nevertheless Java and visited
just such a place this weekend.

Did you know that yesterday, June 4th, was National
Trail Day (NTD)? Yup it was. The primary purpose of
NTD is to donate your time to restore and maintain
your favorite trail, or join others in doing the same
for theirs. For those not inclined to gather up
gloves, pick and shovel, NTD is also intended to
introduce new people to the great outdoors. I was
not inclined to do trail maintenance, so instead I
elected to drag Julio out to a local trail.

We chose a hike that Java and I did earlier in the
year - The Chumash Trail, starting from the Pacific
Coast Highway. It was a short juant - We reached
halfway up the initial ascent, and then retraced our
steps back to the car and called it a day.

Earlier today Java and I set out for slightly more
challenging trail. So we set our sights on exploring
the Santa Barbara backcountry, in the Santa Ynez
Recreation Area, in the Los Padres National Forest.
Specifically, we hiked the Snyder Trail up to Knapp's
Castle.

The trail was in great shape, no doubt having just
been groomed from the efforts by volunteers just the
day before. The trail gained 2000 ft over 3.3 miles
up to our destination, Knapp's Castle. The so called
castle was built for a wealthy couple as a weekend
mountain retreat at the turn of the previous century,
and was destroyed in a forest fire in 1940.

The views along the way, and from the top were very
impressive despite the lingering haze from the still
retreating marine layer. We strolled under numerous
oak tress canopies, past ferns, wildflowers, springs,
butterflies, lizards, quails and various other
birds. Overall a great quick day hike.

Weekend Summary. Saturday: Distance Hiked = 0.6
miles, Elevation Gained = 700 ft. Sunday: Distance
Hiked = 6.6 miles, Elevation Gained = 2000 ft.

Glad to be alive, and loving it! Take care.


-Manny