30 Before 30: #17. Hike Mt. Wilson

Mt. Wilson: check!

Mt. Wilson is one of the most historic peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains. It's the most prominent peak (covered in antennaes) that is visible from Pasadena. It's literally in our backyard! Mt Wilson is 5710 ft high, just shy of the highest point in my home state, Virginia (Mt. Rogers at 5728 ft). It's certainly not the highest peak in southern California (which would be Mt. San Gorgonio at 11499 ft) or the toughest climb (arguably Mt. San Antonio, aka Mt Baldy, 10064 ft). I've wanted to hike it for a while, so adding it to my 30-Before-30 list seemed appropriate.

I saw on facebook that a friend of a friend had started a local hiking group, so I joined the group and saw the first hike planned was summiting Mt. Wilson. I was free that day, so I invited myself along. So yesterday, July 7, 2012, I picked up my friend Janice and her friend James at just after 6am. We picked up their friend Dan, who originally posted about the hike, and drove up to Chantry Flat to park. We got to the parking lot at about 6:35am, and got one of the last parking spaces. That place is busy on summer weekends! After getting all our gear in order, we started out on the trail by 6:45am.

The first part of the trail is quite familiar to me, as it's the same trail that leads to Sturtevant Falls, which I've been to several times. Hiking to the falls after work is one of the joys of long summer days! At the split in the trail, James and I hung out while Janice and Dan continued on to the falls because they hadn't seen it before, then rejoined us about 20 minutes later. I won't go into the gory details of which trails we took where because we basically followed the hike Mt. Wilson trail via Chantry Flats, and this isn't a hiking blog. But I will say that we hiked about 13 miles in 9.5 hours total, including breaks.

The network of trails in the San Gabriels is pretty astounding, with lots of back-country campgrounds and even cabins scattered throughout. The first half of the trail up was fairly busy as it leads to other peaks and good hikes. We chatted with a few other groups, with hikers of all ages, who were heading for different destinations. We were surprised by how much shade the trail afforded, as one of the complaints is that on fire roads and other more exposed trails, it can get hot very quickly! We hiked in full shade for 3/4 of the trip up, and partial shade after that. We were especially grateful since the forecast high temperature was 85 degrees. I'm not gonna lie, I got really tired by the end. The "up" stretches (as opposed to the "flat" stretches) were very slow going for me. My water was out, and I focused my energy on getting to the next shady spot, then resting a bit. I could feel my pulse in my ear drums. The others went on ahead, and James thankfully lent me his hiking poles. (Side note: hiking poles will be my next camping/hiking investment! They were awesome, and it would have been MUCH harder without them! I'm a new believer!) I finally joined the others at the lookout point by about 11:10am.

We had made it! The view from up there was amazing! I had driven up Mt Wilson on previous occasions, but this was the first time I entered the complex and had seen the eastern side of the peak. I had seen some of the views on the Mt. Wilson webcam, though. We wandered around the observatory grounds for a bit, found a drinking fountain, and refilled our water bottles and Camelbak bladders. The Observatory has a collection of telescopes and has quite the history! Hubble and Hale were two of the big-name astronomers who did a bulk of their work at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. There were signs in front of most buildings, and even a small museum for visitors to learn about the work and history of the observatory. We contemplated waiting around for a tour at 1pm, but decided to get home sooner. We then headed for the picnic pavilion, where Janice, Dan and I ate our packed lunches, and James got a sandwich from the Cosmic Cafe. I had developed a blister on the back of my right heel, so I pulled my shoes and socks off during lunch, put a bandaid over the blister, and enjoyed the chance to rest.

We started back down about 12:30pm, after enjoying the views from the west side of the peak toward the Santa Monica Mountains, across the city and toward the Pacific Ocean. Dan and I were in the lead, and we were on the trail no longer than 5 minutes when we spotted a 4-ft long rattlesnake! I had seen one before (while hiking in Ventura County, ask Danielle and Nate how loud I screamed after almost stepping on it!), but this one still took us by surprise. We heard the rattle, but it sounded to me like a louder version of a cicada, so it didn't even register until Dan quickly turned around and walked back up the trail towards me. It slithered into the bushes and quit rattling, so we laughed and kept hiking. However, the section of the trail we were on was switchbacks, so we kept our eyes peeled as we headed down, knowing the snake could make it downhill faster than we could. Ten minutes later, Janice and James caught up to us (they had stopped to take more photos) and we told them about the snake. No sooner had we told them than they saw one just off the side of the trail, slithering downhill. We thought the chances were pretty good that it was the same snake!

The trip down was pretty tiring, but slow and steady wins the race. James had picked up two sticks to use as hiking poles when he lent me his. We switched "poles" at the top of the mountain, so I was grateful for the two sticks on the way down! Again, we were surprised and grateful by the amount of shade on the trail! It was a much quicker descent, of course, but still not record speed. When we got to the trail split at the Upper Winter Creek trail, we remembered that the very start of the trail would be the end of the trail taking that route. Which was a steep, open, paved incline that we would have to hike up to get back to the car. Suddenly, the longer-by-a-mile route that descended to the parking lot sounded a lot better. Only we didn't realize that it also included a climb in the first mile, rather than in the last. The climb on the Upper Winter Creek trail wasn't nearly as steep as the Sturtevant Falls trail would have been, but it was still not very welcome. I was pretty tired and ready to be done by this point!

I finally caught up with the others at the top of the fireroad at the top of the campground/picnic area at Chantry Flat about 4pm, maybe 4:15pm. What a day, but we made it! I was quite proud of myself, but also quite exhausted. I don't think I've accomplished something like that before: 4000 feet of elevation gain in one day, or a 13 mile trail in one day. Before this, I think my longest day hike had been about 10 miles. Woohoo! Today, the day after, my calves and hips are pretty tight, but I'm not as sore as I might have expected!