The mountain ranges that hem in the greater Los Angeles cesspool have served as a welcome and needed escape for quite some time now for the Trager clan. We have answered their call in earnest in the past few years, expanding our knowledge of the various trails and peaks of those ranges over that time and gained inner and outer perspective on life lived within the LA sprawl in the process of roaming about in them. We have become acquainted with those ranges, rising above the smog line, to bask in the bounty they afford. The following photos are a small portion of the larger collection we've amassed over the years, but gives a great portrait of that nearby far away. First off, a trip to Mt. Islip, and the shades of buckwheat, trailside
Slow wooden take over, rock eating roots
Double headed hiking bud, mysterious arm phone
Cabin ruins near the summit
James in its guts
Pocky break at the top
Mostly, the reward is in the journey (if we're speakin cliches). However, the views from the top were lovely, under merciful cloud cover.
Back in the cabin innards with Jared
Camp vibes
Rock faces
The way back down
On a sunnier occasion, we approached Islip again, "we" meaning my most consistent hiking partner and I this time around (Melissa, duh). More often than not, our excursions into the northerly border of our southerly home, we come across PCT markers and they never fail in getting us to daydream about tuning into that trail and dropping out of society for a quarter year (or more).
Usual sense of relief in rising above it all
More rock eating trees
Bowing before the divine of the trail
Verdant downward meadow, trailside
Local geologic thrusting
This guy, again
Double burn
Melissa acquaints herself
Cabin Connection
Summited (and Melissa)
Less merciful sunblasted view
Manufactured landscapes, LA wilderness road cut edition. Thru-line spotted towards the beginning of our hike up to Sunset Peak.
Color blasts, more trailside covereage
Tree tunnel
Rusted summit, nature winning
The way back down
At a certain point, we came across this, which really got our local hiking stoke going. Since we had already bagged one of the peaks on that list already (Mt. Wilson), we decided to use that list as a guiding force for the bigger hikes that we would try in the coming months. As you probably have noticed, however, no photo documentation of the two Wilson summits we had under our belts previous to Islip and Sunset Peak have been posted here. Alas, the first summit we did on accident (long story short, we only set out to do a few miles of the trail, and therefore brought no provisions or camera with us. We ended up doing the entire thing, provision and camera-less. The second ascent, the settings on my camera were screwy). Next on the list was Mount San Antonio, more commonly/lovingly referred to as Mt Baldy. We blasted out of Long Beach early, and came upon the scene below while securing our wilderness passes in Baldy village.
Innards upward
and down. On a more recent hike, we came across this place. It is almost impossible for me to imagine the LA basin as being in any other form than its current incarnation. Peering through these various portals into the previous lives of our current homeland is humbling/enraging. Thus is the bigger study of 'merica herself, but I digress.
Back to the trail, and still in LA county due to graff trailside
Checking out M's bright pinks
The trail of a ski lift in summer
Sugar pine
Summer home
Mt San Baldontonio
Toe thrusting casualties
Ski area boundary
On to the backbone herself
More trailside sights...
This part was a bit more harrowing than it looks
Some perspective looking down from it
M dwarfed, walking the borderline
Scrambled our way to the top, slight altitude shambles
DIY wind protection at the top. Quite pleasant when we bagged 'er, though
This one smells so good!
Twist blasted remnants on the hike down
Preferred shitter
Buck!
Super lame, another new hike... I miss that tortuga shirt
More daydreaming at mile two towards Baden-Powell
Trailside tree deformity. Deformitrees
This one. Around 1500 years in the same spot
What has it seen? How small are our lives?
Summit!
BP himself
My Self in shadow
God chipped
Atop them both
Back to an old friend, Echo Mountain. This hike was one of the first that Melissa and I did together, well before the age of Telissa. I think our first ascent was at least ten years ago. The history of this place is fascinating and it is one of the closest/most convenient hikes to us. We have hiked it a few times by now, the photos below are of the two most recent visits we've had.
Ruins of this place
Hot pinks, rounding that corner with water jug in hand
Old cement words
Old/New swirl
Inspiration point, a few miles above Echo Mtn
Butt locating our hood
Eye-ing it, much better form
Tricky tubin
Wildfire/Human colab ghoul
Looking down upon the works of humans returning to the earth. Nature wins, always
Inna Box!
Pollution Positive
A more recent nite hike echo mtn, with friends from across the pond (met through this social network). Grid perspective, climbing our way towards the ruins at the top
A frenchman and an echo phone
Clem and Maeva take it all in before finding points unknown southward
History by cellphone light. Until part two...
No comments:
Post a Comment