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Introduction

“There is no exercise so beneficial, physically, mentally, or morally, nothing which gives so much of living for so little cost, as hiking our mountain and hill trails and sleeping under the stars.”

So wrote the late Will Thrall—explorer, historian, author, and protector of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.

Thrall’s philosophy certainly applies today, in this age of high-pressure, rapid-paced urban life that engulfs so many Southern Californians. Fortunately, there are mountains practically in the backyard of Los Angeles that offer the harried city dweller a refreshing change of pace. Here, amid forest, chaparral, and stream, you can redeem and revitalize yourself in nature’s unhurried environment. Traveling a wooded trail or scrambling along a rocky hillside, you can find solitude and gain perspective; you will come to discover the true value of wilderness to a civilization that too often places artificial values before real ones.

More than 135 years ago, in 1877, naturalist John Muir sampled the San Gabriels, found them wild and trailless, and described the range as “more rigidly inaccessible … than any other I ever attempted to penetrate.” Great change has come to the San Gabriels since Muir’s excursion. This once-primitive high country that he so vividly described in his classic The Mountains of California is today crisscrossed with paved highways, unpaved side roads, trails, and firebreaks. Yet wilderness is here for anyone who will leave behind pavement and campground to seek it on the numerous footpaths within range.

This guidebook represents a concerted effort to acquaint Southern Californians with the intimate parts of the San Gabriels—the regions away from highways and byways where nature remains relatively undisturbed. One hundred hiking trips take the reader and prospective hiker into almost every nook and cranny of the range. They vary from easy one-hour strolls to all-day and overnight rambles involving many miles of walking and many elevation changes, from excursions to satisfy novice hikers to challenging ones for veteran adventurers. For history buffs, there are tours of the Mount Lowe Railway and the Echo Mountain ruins; for nature lovers, there are samplings of five wilderness areas, forever left to their natural states; for peak baggers, there are routes up almost all of the major summits of the range.

The San Gabriels are laced with trails and fire roads—some well maintained and easy to follow, others nearly forgotten due to erosion and overgrowth. The great majority of trips in this guidebook are on maintained trails and should offer no problems to the hiker. However, the writers have included a handful of cross-country excursions and trailless peak climbs in regions well worth visiting but not served by standard routes. For these trips, directions have been presented in greater detail.

The authors have rewalked, recorded, and researched all trips in this volume, most of them in recent years. Every effort has been made to present the information as accurately and as explicitly as possible. Nevertheless, the prospective hiker should be aware that several factors—some of them unique to the Southern California mountains—may make some of this information out of date in an amazingly short span of time. The first is the rapid growth of chaparral—the rigid, thorny brush that covers 80% of San Gabriel mountain slopes. A trail through this brushy maze, if not continually maintained, can become overgrown and virtually impassable in three years or fewer. Second is fire, the danger of which is extreme during late summer and fall, when the chaparral becomes tinder-dry. Fire denudes hillsides of vegetation, leaving them subject to dirt slippage and rockslides. Third is flood. Winter rainfall is generally moderate in the Southern California mountains (compared to the Sierra Nevada and other northern ranges), but every few years, deluges occur that are particularly destructive to canyon trails. On fire-ravaged hillsides, water erosion can be severe, obliterating large sections of trail. Last is the continual reworking, regrading, and rebuilding of maintained trails by the US Forest Service and volunteer conservation groups. Sometimes part of a trail is redirected along a different route, or road closures require different origination points. Such changes will probably affect only a few of the trips described herein, but if you are unfamiliar with the area in which you plan to hike, it is best to inquire at a ranger station before the trip.

To inquire about fire conditions, and for general questions concerning forest entry, contact the following US Forest Service facilities:

Monday–Friday:

Angeles National Forest headquarters 626-574-1613

Los Angeles River Ranger District 818-899-1900

San Gabriel River Ranger District 626-335-1251

Santa Clara/Mojave River Ranger District 661-269-2825

Saturday–Sunday:

Big Pines Information Center 760-249-3504

Mount Baldy Visitor Center 909-982-2829

Clear Creek Information Station 626-821-6764

Grassy Hollow Visitor Center 626-821-6737

This book is titled Trails of the Angeles because 95% of the San Gabriel Mountains are within Angeles National Forest. However, the eastern end of the range—from the great Baldy–Telegraph–Ontario Ridge to Cajon Pass—is in San Bernardino National Forest. This section boasts some of the finest high country in the mountains, and it has been included because it belongs here better than with the topographically different San Bernardino Mountains several miles east. (Refer to John W. Robinson’s San Bernardino Mountain Trails for 100 trips in the latter range.)

The trips listed here are just a beginning. More than 100 hikes are possible in the San Gabriels, crisscrossed as these mountains are by walking routes. Furthermore, various combinations of routes described here are possible, particularly if you can arrange for car shuttles. You could spend a decade rambling through the range and still not have completely explored the mountains.

We hope that this guidebook will give you the knowledge that can make an outing in the San Gabriels an enjoyable and meaningful experience. Learn and heed forest regulations, follow route directions, become familiar with the area, have proper equipment, and use good sense. Never leave the trailhead without this preparation. The mountains are no place to travel alone, unbriefed, ill equipped, or in poor condition. Enter their portals with the enthusiasm of adventure tempered with respect, forethought, and common sense. The mountains belong to those who are wise as well as willing.