What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
~John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
HIKING LIFE
Fall Hiking Season is Here!
The air is cooler, the visibility from the summits are usually better than in the summer, and the leaves on the trees can make the trail glow as if it was on fire.
Friday Photo – November 3, 2017
If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit of your dream.
~Yuichiro Miura
The Fish Fire One Year Later
What we witnessed that day, words alone cannot describe. Surreal would be close though. Ominous and hellish would be two more.
Mount Wilson The Hard Way
There are about seven different routes in which to summit Mount Wilson. We took the route that begins in Bailey Canyon, and ascends first to Jones Peak, then to Hastings Peak, and then a final push to reach the Mount Wilson Toll Road.
I kicked off my 2017 Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge on Earth Day (4/22). This was my second summit of Mount Wilson, but my first for the challenge. Continue reading
Friday Photo – June 16, 2017
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings”
~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Friday Photo – June 9, 2017
Romance often begins by a splashing waterfall and ends over a leaky sink.
~Ellen DeGeneres
Friday Photo – June 2, 2017
No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.
~Sheryl Crow
Friday Photo – May 26, 2017
A tree against the sky possesses the same interest, the same character, the same expression as the figure of a human.
~Georges Rouault
Mount Baldy and The Climb For Heroes 2017
For being so close to suburbia, this hike has a ‘far away land’ feel to it, and I’ll go so far as to say that, at times, it feels like being in a National Park.
Mount San Antonio, aka Mount Baldy, is known for many things, one of them being the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains. With an elevation of 10,064 feet, and elevation gain of about 3,900 feet in an 11-mile out and back hike, this mountain makes for no easy summit. Given these facts, it’s easy to see why Mount Baldy is number three on the Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge list. The ‘challenge’ is an annual opportunity to summit six of the highest and most prominent peaks in Southern California. Jeff Hester, who runs the website, SoCalHiker, hosts this challenge each year. SoCalHiker is also a major contributor in the annual Mount Baldy Climb For Heroes event. Climb For Heroes is an event hosted by the Heroes Project, a charity that raises money for our US military veterans. Continue reading