This weekend, I joined a group of friends hiking up Mt Wilson in Angeles National Forest. We started at Chantry Flats and did a full loop that came to over 14 miles and over 4000 ft of elevation gain.
Author: Derek Honeycutt
San Diego Trans County Trail and Existential Reflections
On January 4th, I began hiking the San Diego Trans County Trail. It took me 12 total days, counting 2 “zeros” to complete a route that totaled about 170 miles of walking. While hiking, I also took the opportunity to reflect on the last year of my life as my 30th birthday approaches on the 18th; it was a year full of existential exploration throughout a great deal of adventure.
Cactus to Clouds Hike (Attempt)
This last weekend, I headed down to Palm Springs and made an attempt at hiking the Cactus to Clouds route. Starting in Palm Springs and climbing all of the way to the summit of San Jacinto peak, it is often cited as one of the most difficult day hikes in the country. It made for a blast of a day!
White Mountain (14,252ft) Summit Hike
This weekend, I decided to continue hanging out around Bishop and head up into the White Mountains once again. This time, however, I would do the hike to summit White Mountain, itself. At 14,252ft, it is the first ever “14’er” that I have hiked up.
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest and Hot Creek
This weekend, I decided to play it somewhat easy and head up into the White Mountains to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. I ended up doing about 5 and a half miles of hiking, checking out these amazing trees, some over 4000 years old, along with a good amount of fun driving. The following day, I decided to also go and visit Hot Creek up in the Long Valley Caldera.
Yosemite NP : Vogelsang Pass
On Friday evening, I packed up and headed down to Mono Lake. Saturday morning, I woke up early and drove into Yosemite National Park, where I ended up hiking up to Vogelsang Pass and back in a day. It was a wonderful although difficult hike to cap off the summer.
Lassen Volcanic NP : Lassen Peak, Cinder Cone
With several weeks of hiking and backpacking over, I headed into Bend, OR to rest for a couple of weeks. But I couldn’t stay resting for too long, so I headed down to Northern California, and ended up at Lassen Volcanic National Park this weekend. I ended up hiking up Lassen Peak on Saturday and Cinder Cone on Sunday before finding camp nearby for the week.
Hells Canyon : Backpacking The Seven Devils Loop
For Labor Day Weekend, I decided to head over to Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. Since visiting the area last year, doing a large hike has been on my list of things I’ve been wanting to do. With some research, I decided to do the Seven Devils Loop, looping around the Seven Devils Mountains on the Idaho side of the canyon. Along with taking several side trips along the way, I had a difficult but amazing weekend of backpacking.
Sawtooth Wilderness : Eclipse Backpacking Sawtooth Lake, Baron Lakes, Cramer Lakes
For “Eclipse Weekend”, I decided to spend 3 nights and 4 days out backpacking in the Sawtooth Wilderness. I planned out a large loop route that would give me a wonderful view of several sites throughout the wilderness, including a great view for the eclipse itself.
Sawtooth Wilderness : Alice-Toxaway Loop Hike
On Last Friday (flashing back to August 11), I drove into Boise for some hiking supplies, with the plan to return to Stanley and go on a long day hike Saturday. Unfortunately, Tivona ended up having problems and I ended up stuck in Boise until Sunday morning. Nonetheless, I drove the loaner car the dealership gave me off to the Pettit Lake area outside of Stanley and ended up doing the full Alice-Toxaway Lakes Loop Hike, as a day hike.