I just appreciate having real mountains so close by. And they are bad ass. Especially if you like brush and crumbly rock.

And still there tough hikes to do. C'mon Rick, you want to hike to Triplet in the spring?

Rick, you took the mouth right out of my words!

Here! Here! To the San Gabriels. I wake up each morning to the sight of these great peaks.

There are a couple of history compilations out, well written by John W. Robinson. Tidbits are in his 100 Hikes book. Once you read his books every trail is filled with history.

I would wager that there is no comparison with another metropolitan area in the United States to the inaccessibility of Iron Mountain to the proximity of so many millions of people.

UberBabs scrambling up the west ridge of Strawberry Peak on a nice cool cloudy day.

Rick Kent wrote:Careful there Bob. Next thing you know we'll see you starting a "San Gabriel Challenge". ... cept instead of 1 peak each day for 10 days it'll be 10 peaks each day for 10 days.

An excellent idea of course, but don't you think a SoCaler would be better suited to organize it? I'd be happy to make the drive down to join in the fun...

Oh, and the San Bernardino Mtns rock too. Except for those lame HPS peaks at east end of the range that we had to drive on the New Dixie Mine Rd to get to. And Rimrock is apparently where folks go to live when they can't take the big city life of Yucca Valley. But I like the rest of the range. Good hikes and great views too.

Snow conditions in both ranges are primo for snowshoeing at the moment, not so much for skiing - hard pack and icy. Went up Baldy today and only had to share the mountain with Brian and his awesome black dog that downclimbed the Devils Backbone like it was a trail.

ksolem wrote:Here's some cat tracks on the trail out of Monrovia Canyon last month, a couple days after a light rain...

Now they even drive cars