Up to the Mountains
Friday, January 30, 2009 Labels: fitness, Hiking 2 comments Yesterday some friends and I took a little hike up Little Santa Anita Canyon out of Sierra Madre, CA. Our plan was to head up the Mt. Wilson Trail to Orchard Camp (3.3 miles).
Well, when we got to the trail head we saw the sign in the picture below. 
In April 2008 there was a fire on the hills above Sierra Madre. I do not know how many acres burned, but it surrounded the mouth of the canyon. As the trail begins the hike takes you through the burn area.
About 1/2 mile up is the reason the trail is closed. The California Conservation Corps is doing some trail maintenance, and clearing out some of the mud slide area. They put dirt in the black shoot. It slides to th ebottom of the hill where another crew loads it into wheelbarrows and carts it to a dumptruck to be hauled away. We chatted with the supervisor (yellow hat) and continued on up the trail.
As we hiked up, we kept looking back at the view of the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. It was a nice clear day in Southern California.
Santa Anita Racetrack.
We did hike up far enough to get out of the burn area. This is the creek at First Water.
And the trail as we continued further up.
Due to time issues and having to get back, we only made it as far as the US Forest Service heli-pad. Dave S., Me, and Jeff C. in the nor tripod picture from the ground.
The panorama shot looks from the East around to the Southwest. We were still pretty low. We had not reached the CCC doing the trail manitenance yet.We did not make it all the way to Orchard Camp. I think we did end up with about 5 miles round trip.
Looks great, wish this job thing didn't get in the way of me going with you guys.
Apparently you ignored the "Trail closed" sign.