Trails of the Angeles: 100 Hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains
Trails of the Angeles: 100 Hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains
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Overview
Explore the San Gabriel Mountains with This Authoritative Hiking Guide
Escape the rapid-paced urban life of Southern California, and step into the open, rugged terrain of the San Gabriel Mountains. Here, amid forest, chaparral, and stream, you’ll revitalize yourself in nature’s unhurried environment. Visit Eaton Canyon Falls, the most popular waterfall in the Angeles National Forest. Enjoy a family-friendly hike to a historic fire lookout site on Vetter Mountain. Challenge yourself on the San Antonio Ridge, the hardest traverse in the Angeles.
Now in its 10th edition, Trail of the Angeles by David Harris and John W. Robinson has been the region’s trusted hiking guide for more than 45 years. It describes 100 spectacular trails—ranging from one-hour strolls to challenging two-day backcountry trips—in the mountain range that looms large over the Los Angeles Basin. Featuring 18 new hikes, Trail of the Angeles guides you into almost every corner of the San Gabriels.
Inside You’ll Find:
- Descriptions of 100 hikes, including 18 new outings
- Trip difficulty evaluations, season recommendations, length, and elevation gain/loss
- Historical photos and descriptions, including the first American Indian footpaths, early pioneer homesteads, and landmarks still visible from the Great Hiking Era
- “Trails That Used to Be”: ghost trails that have vanished or are now impassable
- BONUS: A folded full-color map detailing all the hikes described in the book
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781643590301 |
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Publisher: | Wilderness Press |
Publication date: | 02/09/2021 |
Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
Format: | eBook |
Sales rank: | 860,646 |
File size: | 35 MB |
Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Liebre Mountain
- HIKE LENGTH: 7 miles out-and-back; 1,700' elevation gain
- DIFFICULTY: Moderate
- SEASON: All year
- MAP: Trails Illustrated Angeles National Forest
- PERMIT: n/a
Features
The long whaleback of Liebre Mountain sprawls at the northwest corner of Angeles National Forest, where the Coast Ranges, the Tehachapis, and the San Gabriels all meld together in a wrinkled jumble. From Liebre’s broad summit, you look north across golden-brown Antelope Valley to the Tehachapis, curving from west to northeast in a great arc; and if the day is clear, the southern ramparts of the Sierra Nevada are visible on the distant skyline. Southward, you peer into the gentle ridge-and-canyon country of the Cienaga and Fish Canyon watersheds. The mountain itself is named for the 1846 Mexican land grant Rancho La Liebre; Liebre is Spanish for rabbit.
This is delightful mountain country, especially in spring, when snow patches linger on north slopes, the California black oak is clothing itself with reddish leaves, and aromatic white sage is blooming in the foothills. This is the home of the gray pine, a hardy dweller on semiarid slopes, easily identifiable by its gray-green needles, large cones (second in size only to the Coulter pine), and multiforked trunk. Also on the mountainside are big-cone Douglas-firs and some rather large scrub oaks. Occasional junipers and pinon pines bear testimony to the blending of mountain and desert here.
This trip follows the historic old Horse Trail, now part of the Pacific Crest Trail but once used to drive horses from the Tejon Ranch to Los Angeles, steeply up the forested north slope of Liebre Mountain from Horse Trail Flat to the summit. Do it in leisurely fashion to fully appreciate the desert view and the unique combination of forest trees and chaparral. It’s a long drive from Los Angeles, but the mountainside is remote, peaceful, and beautiful—well worth the effort.
Description
From Interstate 5, exit east on Highway 138. Go 4 miles, then turn right on the Old Ridge Route (County Road N2). Go 2.2 miles, then turn left onto Pine Canyon Road (also County Road N2). In 4.3 miles, at a crest of a hill just beyond mile marker 13.60, turn right (south) on a rutted dirt road. Follow the road 0.1 mile to its end at the Pacific Crest Trail (GPS N34 44.306 W118 39.357). If the road is washed out and your vehicle has low clearance, consider parking on the shoulder of Pine Canyon instead.
At the upper edge of the parking area is the Pacific Crest Trail, the southbound section climbing west, the northbound dropping southeast. Take the southbound PCT, which ascends the mountainside. (If you start descending, you’re on the wrong trail segment.) You switchback up through live oaks and gray pines, with far-ranging views over Antelope Valley to the Tehachapis. After 2.0 miles you pass Horse Camp to your right. A table and fire ring are here, but there’s no water. (Water can be found seasonally in Horse Camp Canyon via a short use trail from the camp.) You continue switchbacking upward, under a cool canopy of pines and oaks. Near the top your trail becomes an old jeep track. About 60 yards before you reach the crest and a junction with Forest Road 7N23, turn right and scramble to the small rock cairn that marks the 5,760+-foot summit of Liebre Mountain (GPS N34 42.755 W118 39.255). Beware of the foxtail barley around the summit, which has barbs that catch in your socks, or could injure a dog’s eyes. Return the way you came.
VARIATION: With a 5-mile car or bicycle shuttle, you can follow the Liebre hogback west and drop down to the Old Ridge Route at the former site of the historic Sandberg Inn, 0.5 mile south of the Pine Canyon turnoff. You can follow either the easy Liebre Mountain Truck Trail or the more scenic Golden Eagle Trail, an abandoned segment of the PCT that crisscrosses the dirt road. This route is 10 miles.
Table of Contents
Map of the San Gabriel Area
Summary of Hikes
Preface to the Tenth Edition
Introduction
The San Gabriel Mountains
Humans in the San Gabriels
Hiking Hints
Maps
Using This Book
100 Hikes in the San Gabriels
- Liebre Mountain
- Fish Canyon Narrows
- Sierra Pelona
- Placerita Canyon Park
- Whitney Canyon
- Yerba Buena Ridge
- Trail Canyon Falls
- Mount Lukens via Stone Canyon Trail
- Condor Peak
- Mount Lukens via Haines Canyon Trail
- Lower Arroyo Seco
- Down the Arroyo Seco
- Switzer Falls
- Dawn Mine
- Millard Canyon Falls
- Brown Mountain Loop
- Mount Lowe Trail Camp from Sunset Ridge
- Mount Lowe Railway Loop Tour
- Echo Mountain
- Rubio Canyon
- Eaton Canyon Falls
- Henninger Flats
- Mount Wilson Toll Road
- Idlehour Trail
- San Gabriel Peak from Red Box
- Mount Lowe from Eaton Saddle
- Mount Lowe Trail Camp from Eaton Saddle
- San Gabriel Peak from Eaton Saddle
- Bear Canyon Traverse
- Jones Peak
- Josephine Peak
- Strawberry Peak
- Strawberry Meadow
- Orchard Camp
- Mount Wilson via Old Mount Wilson Trail
- Sturtevant Falls
- Mount Zion Loop
- Mount Wilson via Winter Creek
- Mount Wilson via Sturtevant Camp
- Gabrielino National Recreation Trail
- Monrovia Canyon Falls
- Ben Overturff Trail
- Fish Canyon Falls
- Kenyon DeVore Trail to West Fork Trail Camp
- Shortcut Canyon to West Fork Trail Camp
- Vetter Mountain
- Pacifico Mountain
- Devil’s Canyon
- Mount Hillyer
- Twin Peaks and Mount Waterman Traverse
- Mount Waterman from Buckhorn
- Cloudburst to Cooper Canyon Falls to Buckhorn
- Winston Peak
- Pleasant View Ridge
- Eagles Roost Picnic Area to Cooper Canyon Falls
- Mount Williamson
- Williamson – Burkhart Traverse
- Kratka Ridge
- Burkhart Trail
- Devil’s Punchbowl County Park
- Devil’s Chair
- South Fork Trail
- Manzanita Trail
- High Desert Loop
- Smith Mountain
- Bear Creek
- Lewis Falls
- Mount Islip via Windy Gap
- Mount Islip from Islip Saddle
- Mount Islip South Ridge
- Mount Hawkins Loop
- Throop Peak
- Mount Baden–Powell from Vincent Gap
- Silver Moccasin Trail
- Big Horn Mine
- Upper East Fork
- Bridge to Nowhere
- Up the East Fork
- Rattlesnake Peak
- Iron Mountain
- San Antonio Ridge
- Mount Baldy North Backbone Traverse
- Blue Ridge Trail
- Jackson Lake Loop
- Big Dalton Mystic Loop
- Marshall Canyon Loop
- Claremont Hills Wilderness Park
- Etiwanda Falls
- Stoddard Peak
- Sunset Peak
- San Antonio Falls
- Mount Baldy via Devil’s Backbone
- Mount Baldy via Bear Ridge
- Mount Baldy Loop
- Stockton Flat to Baldy Notch
- The Three Ts
- Icehouse Saddle from Icehouse Canyon
- Ontario Peak
- Cucamonga Peak
- Icehouse Saddle from Lytle Creek
Trails That Used to Be
Index