GOLD CANYON TO YERBA BUENA HIGH POINT

Last week Sean and I hiked to the newly restored Gold Canyon trail in Big Tujunga. Sean, Kristin and a few other volunteers had been working on. this for quite some time. The trail had been closed since the 2009 Station Fire. It was a big mess so the crew made a new trail that goes around the old one with lots of swtichbacks for an easier climb up to the road. The new trail is about 2 miles long. We had to hike through the Gold Canyon wash first before reaching the main trail. Its about a mile. There are huge cairins that mark the path just before you ascend the Gold Canyon trail to the left.

Anywyays, I was very impressed. As we hiked thorugh the wash there were lots of colorful conglomerate rocks and beautiful patches of Spanish broom. Once we reached the main trail we were treated with quite an array of beautiful wildflowers. Sean had built a couple of nice rock walls along the switchbacks. 

Our main objective for the day was not only to show me the newly restored trail but to see if we could hike to the Yerba Buena high point which we successfully summited.

We were the only ones on the trail. Since they fiinished the restoration a few weeks ago, some parts of the trail are starting to sprout with new growth. Nevertheless, the trail is still quite nice and the wildflowers are very impressive. 

Once we reached the top of the road we headed for the Yerba Buena high point summit. There was no benchmark or register. We also could see a water tank in the distance, so we decided to make that our lunch spot. We sat there for about an hour to soak in the views. 

All in all, it was a nice day. A bit overcast and chilly but all the wildflowers and beautiful views made it worth it. 

A word of catution. The main trail is blocked by one of the residents so we started down the road a short distance from the hike at mile marker 1.38. We had to descend a used path that is a bit trashy before reaching the creek. Kristin placed pink tree markers that led us to through the creek to the Gold Canyon wash from there it is just straight forward for about one mile before you see the huge cairins on the left where the new trail begins. 

                    

                   

                    

Stats: 9 miles, 2000' ft of gain.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN ATTEMPT JOSHUA TREE

A week ago I met some of my hiking buddies in Joshua Tree at the Lost Palms Oasis trailhead. This is a popular spot for the Mastodon Trail loop. However, we were planning on going way beyond that to a peak where seldmom anyone goes. Eagle mountain is listed on the Sierra Club's Desert peak list. 

First we had to cross 3 miles of open desert and navigated through sandy washes, and did some rock bouldering. The Landscape was beautiful. We passed lots of cool rock formations along the way as we had to ditch unforgiving desert plants such as yucca, cacti and cholla. 

After three miles of admring the scenery, we finally arrived at our first steep climb. We had to traverse the rocky ridge to get to our first break spot on some cool rock outcroppings. 

After the break we continued on traversing a few more ridges which seemed to get tougher to hike through. It was a bit of a rollercoaster as we descended and ascended a few ridges. 

Unfortunately, the group was unable to summit. We had a few issues with people in our group and after eight hours we decided to just head back to our cars.

To add, we still had one more huge hurdle before getting down to the desert floor. We had to descend a 3000 ft ridge and pass a dry fall along the way as we tried to avoid the desert plants on steep, sketchy terrain. 

By this point, it was a race for time. The sun was setting and we did our best to get  back to our cars before nightfall. 

We were unsuccessful and arrived back to our cars by 8:30pm. 

I won't get into details but lots of mistakes were made during the course of our trek, even though majority of the group was experienced. We did have some navigation tools but still got off track The group ended up separating. We spent 12.5 hours in the desert that day.

Needless to say, many lessons were learned and I will probably return with a stronger group of hikers and an earlier start time.