Over the weekend, L.A. Times blogger Steve Hyman was surprised to find a locked gate and a Road Closed sign at Islip Saddle, preventing him from getting from La Canada Flintridge to Wrightwood. That in and of itself is not news — the road closed down in winter four years ago, and there are signs up all along the Angeles Crest Highway clearly saying you can’t drive through.
But Hyman phoned CalTrans and discovered the road may be on schedule to open as early as this Thanksgiving if the current pace of construction continues. If not, it should be ready for traffic by Spring of 2009 — finally letting hikers get into the central High Country of the San Gabriels without having to tack on a long distance hike or drive around to the other side of the 2.
… at least until the next big storm.
Now, if we can just get that CA-39 open to Crystal Lake again, we’ll be all set!
Image by justinm
Now that costs are coming down, will Personal Locator Beacons be the hot new accessory everyone’s got to have on everything they own?
In a bid to potentially become the new L.A. Lights, the Isaac Daniel Company is putting GPS tracking devices in just about everything, due to attack your store shelves sometime around Thanksgiving ‘08. The company has a history of tracking-device shoes for finding lost kids, as well as in medical and law-enforcement, and now they’re looking to broaden their horizons.
The shoe pictured above is their Hill model, aimed at hikers. They’re also rolling out a hunters’ boot and on-the-town shoe, although I honestly don’t know how useful that would be.
Their site’s shop is still under construction, but an article about a medical model from last year quotes sneakers at $335 a pair, with a $25 per month subscription fee — which is pretty outlandish, considering the SPOT tracker is only $169, with subscriptions of $99 a year ($150 with google maps tracking).
Then again, the SPOT probably won’t get you into a club.
Check out their web site for more info, and to see if anything else is available yet. And turn down your speakers. There’s a Good Morning America clip that starts blasting as soon as you open the page.
Most of the time, people don’t associate hiking with an expensive outdoor activity … unless you start factoring in the latest ultralight gear and nutritional energy bars. But the National Forests in Southern California DO charge you a very small fee to park and use their land.
Except for this weekend…
On Saturday and Sunday, as part of without any Adventure Passes or fees — except for overnight camping, concession areas, and OHV zones.
So get out there and hike, cheapskates!
Some of the folks from Adventure 16 - a wonderful SoCal chain of outdoors stores - recently conquered the 8000 Meter Challenge — a back to back to back hike of Mount Baldy, Mount San Gorgonio, and Mount San Jacinto all in 24 hours. In total, it involves 38 miles of hiking and over 11,000 feet of elevation gain.
To put it lightly, it’s an effin’ monster of a hike.
The crew wrote up their experience, as well as details on all the gear they were using and tips for hikers who’d like to eventually test themselves with this challenge as well (like me, for instance).
Read all about it at the A16 blog.
image by V.H.S.
While doing a bit of research on the Icehouse Canyon area for my last write-up, I stumbled upon the personal web site of a physics and engineering professor at Mount San Antonio College. He owns one of the cabins in Icehouse Canyon, and apparently they’ve got themselves something of a historical society in that canyon.
The professor has two interesting posts, one small capsule history of the Canyon itself, and a great post on the Chapman Ice House Canyon Resort and Lodge, with some great scanned images from another cabin-owner.
Not necessary to hike and enjoy the canyon, but if you’re a history nerd like me, you’ll gain a whole new level of appreciation for Icehouse.
Image from the Pomona Public Library
A 14 mile in-and-out that hits two of the tallest, most prominent peaks in the Angeles National Forest. Beginning with the historic, alpine brook that runs through Icehouse Canyon, this trail climbs through picturesque pine and cedar to Icehouse Saddle before visiting the site of an old trail resort and ascending a long ridge between the two peaks. A truly magnificent and rewarding hike, with great views of the Baldy Bowl for almost the entire route. Highly, highly recommended.
Continue reading ‘Hiking Bighorn Peak and Ontario Peak’
Backpacker caught the story of what may be the most rugged political event of history:
Utah Washington County Commissioner hopeful Lin Alder will be hiking and biking along the route to a proposed 170-mile water pipeline from perpetually-shrinking Lake Powell. He’s running against the pipeline and the increased development and costs to the state, and will hold information-gathering sessions and lectures. The trip will end in a sure-to-be-dramatic debate with his opponent atop the Hurricane Cliffs, just outside Zion National Park.
Wow.
That’s one way to get people excited about politics.
So, after Backpacker chronicled three separate incidents involving personal locator beacons (2 of which were successful), I finally decided to drop the cash to buy a Spot Satellite Messenger
for myself.
I will say, the setup was very intuitive and painless, and the test messages to cell phones and emails worked out perfectly.
Hopefully, that is all I will ever have to use it for.
I’ll probably test out the GPS data and online interface for sending the “OK” signal on my next trip, though.
I was honored to attend Quang-Tian Long’s “Treasured Lands” exhibition at Santa Monica’s Bergamont Station this weekend.
Long is a trained scientist and gifted photographer who fell in love with Yosemite on a visit and decided he had to see all of the National Parks. His exhibition consists of 58 large prints — one from each of the U.S. National Parks.
He shoots on 5×7 film, which is both very difficult and rewarding — these images have an astounding resolution and clarity that really reminds you just how far digital has to go.
His exhibition runs at the Terra Galleria through October 25th, and is well worth a visit. If you can’t make it out to Santa Monica, though, definitely take a moment to browse through his online gallery. Even on a computer screen, the images are impressive.
Thanks to Andrew for the tip!
The L.A. Times reports a mountain lion is on the prowl near the city of Glendora, following a recent near-attack on a cyclist on Glendora Ridge Road at the end of August. Near Marker 930, a man biking at nearly 20 mph had a very close encounter with a mountain lion as it jumped down a steep bank at the cyclist.
Dry weather made tracking the lion impossible, so authorities are warning everyone who hikes or bikes in the area to brush up on their mountain lion survival skills:
–Do not hike, bike, or jog alone.
–Avoid hiking or jogging when mountain lions are most active — dawn, dusk and at night.
–Keep a close watch on small children.
–Do not approach a mountain lion.
–If encounter a mountain lion, do not run; instead, face the animal, make noise and try to look bigger by waving your arms; throw rocks or other objects. Pick up small children.
–If attacked, fight back.
–If a mountain lion attacks a person, immediately call 911.
These guys have a pretty big range, so they’re hoping it just happened to wander closer to civilization than it would usually do. But still — hike safe, and keep your wits about you.
Also, try to think about how you’d fight back against a mountain lion.
Photo by jhookfisher
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