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Hikes in September

***** Rain or extreme heat can­cels all hikes*****

Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 17, 2022

Cerro Noroeste to Grouse and Sawmill

MEETUP TIME: 8:30 A.M.

DISTANCE: 7 miles — out and back style.

GAIN: 1700’

RATED: Not for begin­ners. This one is Mod­er­ate / Mod­er­ate +++ main­ly for thin air (low oxy­gen) impact and long steep­er stretches.

HIKE DURATION: About 4 1/2 hours (includ­ing a 20-minute snack break)

DESCRIPTION: This 7‑mile hike from the 8100 ft. trail head takes you to 2 sum­mits (first Grouse 8573ft and then Sawmill Moun­tain 8818 ft). The trail is most­ly in the for­est but a lot of up hill. We will have a 20-minute Snack and recov­ery break at Grouse, then on to Sawmill for the Peek pho­to , then back to the trail head ( Down and up both ways). Mod­er­ate hik­ers should be eas­i­ly able to com­plete all two summits.

Bear in mind, this entire “out and back” trail is very well marked/ easy to fol­low, so you can safe­ly turn around at ANY stage, depend­ing on your ability/ sta­mi­na. Also, we will have sign­post­ed the route with our pop­u­lar orange chalk arrows to help you 🙂

BRING: Strong shoes, dress in lay­ers (expect­ing 75 F at start). Poles are use­ful, if you have them; snack lunch; a hat; !!sun­screen!!, bug spray / bug net (in case). 3 liters of liq­uids (2L water/ 1 liter elec­trolytes, i.e. Gatorade), and your camera.

ADVENTURE PASS: Not required. See bath­room note below.

MEET: (Google Coor­di­nates 34.82839, ‑119.20201)
Your leader at the West Tuma­mait Trail­head 8:30 AM , locat­ed along Cer­ro Noroeste Road near the sum­mit of Cer­ro Noroeste. The group will head out at 8:40 Sharp. Trail­head park­ing is along the shoul­der of the road, allow 1 ½ hours to get to trail­head from San­ta Clarita.

DIRECTIONS: From San­ta Clari­ta Val­ley: Take I‑5 North ~ 40 miles to the Fra­zier Park off ramp. Exit, turn left under high­way. Go West on the Fra­zier Park Road for about 12 miles pass­ing Lock­hart Val­ley Road (on the left) until you see signs for Mt. Pinos (Do not go to Mt Pinos). Slight right onto For­est Rte 9N05 (this will route you through Pine Moun­tain Club). Con­tin­ue onto For­est Hwy 95/Mil Potrero Hwy for about 5 ½ miles. Turn left onto Cer­ro Noroeste Rd/Forest Rte 9N25 and fol­low the road up 6.9 miles till you see the West Tuma­mait Trail­head on the right. The park­ing is lim­it­ed by the trail head, how­ev­er if we use Angle park­ing we should be able to max­i­mize the lim­it­ed space.

NOTE: There are no oper­a­tional Por­ta Pot­ty toi­lets at the trail­head. We rec­om­mend a quick stop as you exit the 5 Fwy at the Truck stop / gas sta­tion on the left, before head­ing toward Fra­zier Park.

LEADER: Paul Huskey

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Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 24, 2022

Short/ Long Local Hikes: Weldon Cyn to East Cyn; or add on Mission Peak

Details: Short­er or Longer Local Hikes: Wel­don Canyon to the junc­tion with East Canyon, or go longer out to Mis­sion Peak and back.

Meet­up Time: 7:45 A.M.

Distance/ Gain: Both hikes are Out and Back (O/B) style; length depends on whether you do the sec­ond part (an extra ~3.7 miles round trip).

NOTE: If you just want to do the “Short­er” hike, once we hit East Canyon, you will check out with the lead­ers and then head back the same way you arrived, back down to Wel­don Canyon. It is straight­for­ward but you will also be able to fol­low the arrows (we will have left) to the trail head.

“Short­er”: Wel­don to the East Canyon junc­tion ~ 5.5 mile Round trip total with 900′ gain. Views of SFV, SCV and Oat Moun­tain, return­ing to Wel­don trail head. Fair warn­ing — this hike starts steeply but does get much eas­i­er lat­er. This hike should fin­ish by 11.15 AM.

“Longer”: Same as above but ~ 9.2 mile Round Trip hike with 1600’ gain. At the East Canyon junc­tion you con­tin­ue to the top of East canyon, where you turn South on the Sun­shine Canyon Motor­way for an out and back to Mis­sion Peak. 3.7 extra miles. Views of SFV, the Van Nor­man Reser­voir, Bal­boa Blvd, the West side of San Gabriels and East side of the San­ta Susana Moun­tains off to the West. Return the same way to Wel­don trail head. This hike should fin­ish by 12.30 PM.

Rat­ing:
Hike #1 — Easy+ / Moderate
Hike #2 — Mod­er­ate + (main­ly for distance).
Both hikes are not for begin­ners — you need to be in good phys­i­cal con­di­tion to com­plete them, due to some decent gain near the start, over a short distance.

Descrip­tion: Vis­it the rolling hills, views and qui­et oak wood­lands of the 480-acre Michael D. Antonovich Open Space. The area strad­dles the ridge­line of the San­ta Susana Moun­tains and fea­tures mixed wood­lands of big cone Dou­glas-fir, big leaf maple, coast live oak, Cal­i­for­nia black wal­nut, native ash, and val­ley oak. Chances are high we will meet almost no one else for most of the hike.

Meet your leader: At the Wel­don Canyon Trail Head at 7:45 AM for a 8:00 AM SHARP depar­ture up the canyon. Park off the road near the brown Wel­don Canyon sign.

Direc­tions to Wel­don Canyon Trail Head (22925 Coltrane Avenue, Newhall (34.34103, ‑118.52595):
Exit the I‑5 free­way if going North, at Cal­grove Blvd. Turn West and fol­low Cal­grove around a curve and through one sig­nal. You are now on the Old Road. Pass Towsley Cyn on the right; keep going along the road South and under the 5 FWY until you see a bridge on right that goes over the 5 FWY (Wel­don Canyon Rd. to Coltrane Avenue). Fol­low it, as if going to the Oak Tree Gun Club, but stop near the brown Wel­don Cyn sign on the left.

Bring: Lots of water, snack/lunch, hik­ing poles and a cam­era. Good shoes with tread are a must going up Wel­don. If the day is cool, bring an extra lay­er, espe­cial­ly if going to Mis­sion Peak, as it usu­al­ly is windy.

Adven­ture Pass: Not required

Dogs: Ok, if on a leash and well-behaved with oth­er dogs / people.

Leader: Nan­cy H

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Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 8. 2022

La Jolla Cyn Trailhead/ Ray Miller Backbone/ Overlook Trail to La Jolla Camp

DETAILS: Please read the full Descrip­tion below CAREFULLY so you are aware of all meet­ing time/ location/ direc­tions, details etc. THX

MEETUP TIME: 8:00 A.M.

La Jol­la Cyn Trailhead/ Ray Miller Back­bone Trail / Over­look Trail to La Jol­la Val­ley Trail Camp

TIME(s): Meet at Trail­head (at the back of the park­ing lot) at 7:45 AM to start hik­ing at 8:00 AM sharp, details below. Note: Dri­ve time from SCV is ~1 hour 15mins.

DISTANCE: ~ 10.4 mile Round Trip total, out and back style

GAIN/ LOSS: ~ 1580’ total (1000’ in the first 2.7 miles)

RATING: Mod­er­ate ++ (NOTE: this is NOT a begin­ners hike, the rat­ing is due to longer dis­tance and 1000’ gain ear­ly in hike). You need to be hik­ing reg­u­lar­ly to enjoy this hike.

HIKE DURATION: ~ 4.5 hours hike + 0.5 hour snack time
Hike should end by ~ 1:00 PM, back in SCV 2:45PM

TRAIL HEAD: Meet your leader at the Ray Miller Trail­head (rear of park­ing lot) in La Jol­la Canyon Park­ing lot (Google coor­di­nates 34.0837567, ‑119.0358925). Entrance to Par­fk­ing Lot is across from La Jol­la beach:

DESCRIPTION: We start at sea lev­el at the back of the La Jol­la Canyon Group Camp­ing Park­ing Area to head up the Ray Miller Back­bone Trail. The trail winds back and forth across the hill­side pro­vid­ing spec­tac­u­lar views of Pacif­ic Coast High­way and the Pacif­ic Ocean. We climb almost 1000’ in the first 2.7 miles then it lev­els off for 1.9 miles as we tra­verse the ridge, join­ing the Over­look trail, reveal­ing great views into Sycamore Canyon and the Boney Moun­tain range off to the South East. The final 0.7 miles is a grad­ual descent along the Loop trail into the val­ley below, turn­ing into the La Jol­la Val­ley walk-in camp­ground. Here we take a break and grab a snack before our return to the trail­head along the same route.

DIRECTIONS from San­ta Clari­ta to the La Jol­la Canyon trailhead:
Take Newhall Ranch road West until you go over the 5 Free­way and becomes CA-126, head­ing West toward Ventura.
Fol­low CA-126 W, 34.4 miles, then use Exit 5 from CA-126 W to merge on to CA-118 East, toward Sati­coy. Con­tin­ue until the road T’s . Turn right on to San­ta Clara Ave, which becomes Rice Ave and even­tu­al­ly merges into Route 1 (PCH), turn­ing South along the coast. Stay on PCH, pass­ing Point Mugu Naval base on the right, beside the ocean. After pass­ing the big Point Mugu Rock, La Jol­la Canyon park­ing entrance is 1.4 miles fur­ther, on the left. Be alert, 1/4 mile soon­er and watch traf­fic as you turn in.

PARKING: There are 2 options — park in the La Jol­la Canyon Park­ing lot and pay a $12/ day fee with a cred­it card to a machine in the lot. Alter­na­tive­ly, you may be able to find free park­ing out on the PCH, on either side of the entrance (!! obey signs and park behind arrows/ inside white­line, or risk a hefty ticket!!).

BRING: Hik­ing boots with good tread, Poles if you have them, lunch/ snacks, at least 2 — 3 liters of water plus some elec­trolytes, SUN SCREEN/ lip balm.

BATHROOMS/ ADVENTURE PASS: There are bath­rooms at the camp­ground / trail­head. Pass not required. PARKING OUTSIDE THE GATE IS FREE. PARKING INSIDE IS $12.

DOG(s): Sor­ry, dogs are not allowed on this trail (I don’t make up the rules).

Leader: Chris Stratford