I had a Friday off, so that meant getting a new SOTA peak. I had this peak on my radar for a while, and decided to just go do it. Based on some other trip reports, I thought I could follow a dirt road up from near where Agua Dulce Canyon Road crosses CA 14. I parked in a large pullout, and headed down.
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| Gate near the start of the route. |
The road crosses a dry stream bed, then starts to climb. However, at the start of the climb was a locked gate with a clear "no trespassing" sign. Since there was an official looking truck parked in the pullout, I decided to use my second route. I went back to the car and drove a few miles down the road to a large pullout near a telephone pole.
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| Second trailhead. Not nearly as bad as Burn Benchmark. |
I parked and took a look around. There were no fences or signs, so I started up the hill. I found a faint use path that went up to around the power lines, then ended. However, it was simple and steep to just follow the ridge up to the summit.
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| Summit area. |
The left side of the ridge was very steep, almost a cliff, and the right side only a bit less so. It felt like a knifes edge at points, but was wide enough not to be scary. Eventually I made it up to the summit, probably sooner than I would have if I had started up near CA 14. The route was less than a mile.
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| San Gabriel mountains in the distance. |
I used an old post to hold up my pole, and got on the air. I was close enough to the freeway to have good cell service and hear all the cars. Since it was Friday, there were a number of other operators out, and I got a bunch of summit to summit contacts.
I took the same route down, double checking to make sure I took the correct ridge. It would've been a pain if I had to backtrack up one of the steep slopes.
Trailhead: Agua Dulce Canyon Road, about (34.43925, -118.3333)
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow the ridge to the summit.
Red Tape: None.
Video: ham_bitious YouTube
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