Participants: Tom Chester and Dave Gregorich
Date: 16 April 1997 (Written up 4 May 1997)Trailhead location, trail condition and hiking directions.
Plants in bloom: California poppy, lupine, ceonothus (California lilac), Spanish broom (just beginning), nightshade, deerweed (California broom), monkey flower, thistle, Indian Paintbrush, a 3' bush with crinkly lavendar 5-petalled flowers with a yellow center (a wild rose?), a tiny flower that looks like the flower of baby blue eyes but smaller, a bush/vine that looks very much like poison oak (except the leaves are not shiny) with many largish yellow flowers with 4 flat petals with 20 or so little yellow spikes within the flower (Potentilla? it wasn't poison oak because the poison oak was flowering with much less showy flowers), and others. California dodder (witch's hair) prominent. Yuccas sending up flower stalks.
Weather: Sunny, temperature in mid-80s.
Bugs: Considerable no-see-ums. The no-see-ums were quite annoying, starting at about 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., especially near and at the top, where they prevented us from staying in any location more than a few seconds. They were dive-bombing us in places near Mt. Bliss. It required constant waving of a hand in front of our faces to keep them away. They finally went away by the time we got to Mt. Bliss on the way down.
Number of ticks: 0, due to hiking on wide fire road sans vegetation. However, Dave reports that ticks are out in force, having picked up several just on the short trail part of the hike before the weeds were cleared out.
Number of rattlesnakes: 1, at about 2000' on way down.
Other pests: None.Explanation of columns for all trip logs
# Mileage Time arrived Time left Altitude Comments 0 0.00 08:37 650 Top of Mel Canyon 1 0.15 Trail forks, went left. Right goes to water tank and rejoins. 2 0.35 8:48 Trails rejoin. 3 0.40 Side trail going off to left. 4 0.50 8:53 Jct. fire road. 5 0.55 8:54 Jct. Van Tassel fire road. 6 1.10 9:11 Rounding loop to west. 7 1.55 09:25 1700 Power Tower "flat" 8 1.60 09:30 Gate across road to keep cars out. 9 2.45 09:59 2500 Achieved ridge 10 2.85 10:07 Road is lined with pretty trees in full bloom. View of Mt. Wilson and Monrovia Peak. 11 3.55 10:32 3100 Flat part of ridge. Large field of lupine in full bloom here and beyond. 12 4.05 10:50 3350 Jct. Powerline Road to Mt. Bliss 13 4.20 10:53 Crest of road going by Mt. Bliss 14 5.15 11:19 3100 IN29 / GW9 15 5.35 11:26 3100 White Saddle. Sign: Red Box - Rincon Road 3.1 miles. Fish Canyon Road 6.0 miles. Monrovia Canyon Park 4.8 miles." Right on Upper Clamshell Road. 16 5.85 11:42 Stream Crossing 17 6.25 11:56 Stub of road to right 18 6.85 12:13 Recent slide 19 7.00 12:19 "1972 Slew". Hip hurts now, so have slowed down. 20 7.45 12:32 Second "1972 Slew". Some shade now. 21 7.55 12:35 3350 Beautiful stand of california lilac covering entire hillside. 22 7.80 12:43 4250 "Burned Tree" 23 8.00 12:52 4450 Closed Gate 24 8.20 12:57 4550 A little west on Red Box - Rincon Road - good views to north 25 8.90 01:19 4750 Jct. Monrovia Peak ridge trail - turnaround 26 9.75 01:49 4500 Closed Gate 27 11.60 02:32 3800 Spur road. 28 12.05 02:43 3600 Stream crossing 29 12.55 03:00 3300 White Saddle 30 12.80 03:06 3250 White cut tank 31 13.55 03:28 3800 IN36 sign 32 13.70 03:32 3600 High Point by Mt. Bliss 33 13.80 03:36 3600 Jct. Powerline Road to Mt. Bliss 34 14.35 03:49 3350 Bliss 1 water tank 35 16.50 04:41 1950 Gate 36 17.75 05:12 1150 Jct. spur road to car 37 18.45 05:33 850 Car.
Go to:
Copyright © 1997 by Tom Chester.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to me at this source:
http://tchester.org/sgm/hikes/tc/48-2.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 18 June 1997.