Tweet
This would have been posted as a run if it weren't for the fact that it just popped into my head on Sunday morning at about mid morning. I didn't really get out the door until just before noon. Of course, I didn't really get back until around midnight. 
After attending the Scenario Class for OHV Host Candidates in Arrowhead on Saturday, I was left with the feeling that I needed to actually get out and explore something. I had a lot of fun with the class, but still felt a strong need to log some "dirt miles."
Since I drove to San Bernandino National Forest and back on Saturday, I thought I'd check out my own back yard on Sunday.
I'm glad I did.
The first half of the excursion was to places that I already knew, but the 2nd half was to explore places that I had never been to before. As always when wheeling in "the limo," it was packed with everything I needed to survive a few days in the forest, should it become necessary. I'll try to include details of my travels for anyone who wants to do this.
It started with a leisurely drive up Angeles Crest Highway (The 2) to the first entrance to Chilao, which I believe is designated 3N21 as part of the loop to the 2nd entrance to Chilao.
Just past the Chilao Station, 3N14 drops into the dirt and becomes a scenic drive which merges with 3N17.
If you follow 3N17 to the left you will see in a few minutes that you can veer left up to Mount Pacifico or veer right on 5N04 to Sulpher Springs. To the right it goes back to The 2.
I chose to go to Sulpher Springs first and wander around a bit. I ran into a fair number of people out mountain biking, hiking or jogging.
It was now approaching 1pm so I went back to 3N17 and took that to The 2 at about mile marker 52.85 and made a left to see if there was anything interesting going on for lunch at Mt. Waterman Ski area (mile marker 57.42). There were only chair lift rides going on, so I went back down The 2 to Newcomb's Ranch (mile marker 50.77) and had a burger, fries and a root beer, while hanging out with the biker crowd. I parked next to a built Wrangler, which made my stock Scrambler look tiny.
They were really busy at Old Man Newcomb's place as we used to call it when I was a kid and I didn't get back on the road until just after 2pm.
From here it was a short couple of hundred yards to the 2nd entrance to Chilao on 3N21 (mile marker 50.60) and I paid a short visit to the Chilao Visitor's center to see if they had a better map than I had for exploring the area west of Mt. Pacifico, which I was unfamiliar with. They had something better than what I had, so I rolled up to 3N14, went right to 3N17, turned left on 3N17 and this time veered left up to Mount Pacifico.
It was an absolutely beautiful day out and I practically had the trails to myself.
At the top of the trail I turned right up the spur road to Mt. Pacifico. There were a couple of campers there. I stopped and wandered around for a while and took in the view of Little Rock reservoir off in the distance.
This was a perfect time and place to sit down at a picnic table with some cold water out of the cooler and plan what I was going to do next as I went into unknown territory.
I decided to just continue driving west along 3N17 and check out the various spur roads I found and eventually come out either in Newhall, San Fernando or the Sunland/Tujunga area depending on which ways I decided to turn along the way.
This was a very scenic route and I'd like to point out that most of this trip ran parallel to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).
My first departure from 3N17 was to the left down 3N90. This gave me one of the best vistas of the day. I think they call this Roundtop Hill, but I'm not sure about that.
I returned to 3N17 and continued exploring until I arrived at the Angeles Forest Highway (not The 2) at Mill Creek.
Out came the map again and I decided to back track a couple of hundred yards to go down 4N18 to Upper Big Tujunga Rd. It was about 4pm.
This turned out to be a bit confusing, because 4N18 is apparently made up of multiple paths, some of which were traveling along the powerlines and other which took a route far below closer to the highway and Mill Creek. I switched back and forth trying to figure out where I was really supposed to be.
At one point, I was hundreds of feet above the highway and could see the trails below. At another point, I was down by Mill Creek below the highway and could see the trails above going along the 2 separate sets of powerlines.
Ever present was the uneasy feeling that I was in the wrong place and that I would run into some really bad place to be in. It never got too bad and this little bit of anxiety actually added to the sense of adventure on my quest to explore.
There was one place along 4N18 that make me think of Mitch (great88). I looked up and saw a fairly large entrance to a mine, which was all made of wood. I think I can find it again.
About an hour into attempting to follow 4N18, I came to another fork in the road to choose either "up" or "down." This time I was presented with a brown fiberglass marker with 2N23 written on it... this didn't sound familiar and had me feeling a bit lost.
It was about 5pm and I had not seen anyone for hours. I decided that it was time to pull out the various maps that I had collected from the Internet and from the Visitor's center.
As I was sitting right in the middle of the intersection reading maps and trying to decide which way to go, along comes a Porche Cayenne from the high road. All trails were fairly narrow, so sitting right in the middle was the best place for me to be and gave me an opportunity to easily move in one of 3 directions to let someone by.
They indicated that they were planning to continue down the low road, but asked me if I could help them and tell them where they were. I responded that I was also lost and that my map didn't have 2N23 on it.
So, we had a nice chat and compared maps. They also had multiple maps and told me that they had started from Upper Big Tujunga Rd, which is where I was going. They had also been traveling for about an hour, so we figured that we were probably about in the middle of 4N18.
They mentioned that they had come down one part that was very steep and that the passenger actually got out to walk, because the vehicle kept slipping and he needed her to spot him to make sure his tires were in the best place. They didn't think that they would have been able to go up that part and thought that I might not want to try it alone.
By the way, The Porche Cayenne has a sort of locking differential, which I got to see in action later when one of their wheels was about a foot off of the ground. It was pretty cool to see this in a "crossover." Of course, in the Jeep all of my wheels were firmly on the ground and I looked at that part of the trail as fairly tame even for my stock CJ-8.
We looked through all of the maps we had between us and found one map that had 2N23 on it. It connected 4N18 to Monte Cristo campground next to Angeles Forest Highway. It was indeed about half way down 4N18.
I decided to leave the 2nd half of 4N18 for another day when I wasn't solo and decided to follow them out to the highway, since they were already a bit apprehensive.
2N23 was fairly tame all the way out and had one minor stream crossing before we got to the campground.
It was about 5:30 pm and I had a choice to make. Call it a day or go back up to 3N17 and contine to Messenger Flat, North Fork and Live Oak campgrounds.
My gas guage is less than accurate and I decided to top off the tank in Tujunga and then go back to 3N17 to continue to explore. I figured that most of 3N17 was paved and that it shouldn't take long to get across.
It was about 6:30 pm when I got back to 3N17, which I knew left me about an hour and a half before the sun went down.
There were some side roads on 4N24, 4N32, 4N33 and 4N37 that were dirt, but I decided to leave them for another day and just stick to 3N17 with one side trip to Lightning Point. I was on the ridge of the Santa Clara Divide most of the time.
Although, I misjudged how long this 2nd half of he trip would take, it was a great night to be out driving in the forest.
The wildlife sightings were all on the 2nd half of this trip.
I had 3 sightings of deer with 2 deer in each sighting. I saw many quail, 2 owls, a red tailed hawk swooping down on it's prey, a jet black rabbit (I don't remember seeing anything, but light ones) and lots of squirrels.
The road varied from pretty good to lots of deep pot holes to dirt. The road out to Lightning Point was realy cool, but was closed before reaching the end.
The sunset was spectacular just before taking the road to Lightning Point and the twilight hours gave a beautiful light show of pink and purple hues across the mountains. Once it was dark I enjoyed the city lights in the distance beyond the shadows of the mountains all around me.
At one point, I started to see signs that said, "Keep Out, property of State Prison." That was strange and I obeyed by not going up any of those roads. I wasn't really looking for an extended stay.
I checked out the campgrounds along the way and made it to Little Tujunga Canyon Road by about 11:30 pm.
It took me about a half hour to get home from there.
My apologies for not bringing a camera. Next time!
Christian
After attending the Scenario Class for OHV Host Candidates in Arrowhead on Saturday, I was left with the feeling that I needed to actually get out and explore something. I had a lot of fun with the class, but still felt a strong need to log some "dirt miles."
Since I drove to San Bernandino National Forest and back on Saturday, I thought I'd check out my own back yard on Sunday.
I'm glad I did.
The first half of the excursion was to places that I already knew, but the 2nd half was to explore places that I had never been to before. As always when wheeling in "the limo," it was packed with everything I needed to survive a few days in the forest, should it become necessary. I'll try to include details of my travels for anyone who wants to do this.
It started with a leisurely drive up Angeles Crest Highway (The 2) to the first entrance to Chilao, which I believe is designated 3N21 as part of the loop to the 2nd entrance to Chilao.
Just past the Chilao Station, 3N14 drops into the dirt and becomes a scenic drive which merges with 3N17.
If you follow 3N17 to the left you will see in a few minutes that you can veer left up to Mount Pacifico or veer right on 5N04 to Sulpher Springs. To the right it goes back to The 2.
I chose to go to Sulpher Springs first and wander around a bit. I ran into a fair number of people out mountain biking, hiking or jogging.
It was now approaching 1pm so I went back to 3N17 and took that to The 2 at about mile marker 52.85 and made a left to see if there was anything interesting going on for lunch at Mt. Waterman Ski area (mile marker 57.42). There were only chair lift rides going on, so I went back down The 2 to Newcomb's Ranch (mile marker 50.77) and had a burger, fries and a root beer, while hanging out with the biker crowd. I parked next to a built Wrangler, which made my stock Scrambler look tiny.
They were really busy at Old Man Newcomb's place as we used to call it when I was a kid and I didn't get back on the road until just after 2pm.
From here it was a short couple of hundred yards to the 2nd entrance to Chilao on 3N21 (mile marker 50.60) and I paid a short visit to the Chilao Visitor's center to see if they had a better map than I had for exploring the area west of Mt. Pacifico, which I was unfamiliar with. They had something better than what I had, so I rolled up to 3N14, went right to 3N17, turned left on 3N17 and this time veered left up to Mount Pacifico.
It was an absolutely beautiful day out and I practically had the trails to myself.
At the top of the trail I turned right up the spur road to Mt. Pacifico. There were a couple of campers there. I stopped and wandered around for a while and took in the view of Little Rock reservoir off in the distance.
This was a perfect time and place to sit down at a picnic table with some cold water out of the cooler and plan what I was going to do next as I went into unknown territory.
I decided to just continue driving west along 3N17 and check out the various spur roads I found and eventually come out either in Newhall, San Fernando or the Sunland/Tujunga area depending on which ways I decided to turn along the way.
This was a very scenic route and I'd like to point out that most of this trip ran parallel to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).
My first departure from 3N17 was to the left down 3N90. This gave me one of the best vistas of the day. I think they call this Roundtop Hill, but I'm not sure about that.
I returned to 3N17 and continued exploring until I arrived at the Angeles Forest Highway (not The 2) at Mill Creek.
Out came the map again and I decided to back track a couple of hundred yards to go down 4N18 to Upper Big Tujunga Rd. It was about 4pm.
This turned out to be a bit confusing, because 4N18 is apparently made up of multiple paths, some of which were traveling along the powerlines and other which took a route far below closer to the highway and Mill Creek. I switched back and forth trying to figure out where I was really supposed to be.
At one point, I was hundreds of feet above the highway and could see the trails below. At another point, I was down by Mill Creek below the highway and could see the trails above going along the 2 separate sets of powerlines.
Ever present was the uneasy feeling that I was in the wrong place and that I would run into some really bad place to be in. It never got too bad and this little bit of anxiety actually added to the sense of adventure on my quest to explore.
There was one place along 4N18 that make me think of Mitch (great88). I looked up and saw a fairly large entrance to a mine, which was all made of wood. I think I can find it again.
About an hour into attempting to follow 4N18, I came to another fork in the road to choose either "up" or "down." This time I was presented with a brown fiberglass marker with 2N23 written on it... this didn't sound familiar and had me feeling a bit lost.
It was about 5pm and I had not seen anyone for hours. I decided that it was time to pull out the various maps that I had collected from the Internet and from the Visitor's center.
As I was sitting right in the middle of the intersection reading maps and trying to decide which way to go, along comes a Porche Cayenne from the high road. All trails were fairly narrow, so sitting right in the middle was the best place for me to be and gave me an opportunity to easily move in one of 3 directions to let someone by.
They indicated that they were planning to continue down the low road, but asked me if I could help them and tell them where they were. I responded that I was also lost and that my map didn't have 2N23 on it.
So, we had a nice chat and compared maps. They also had multiple maps and told me that they had started from Upper Big Tujunga Rd, which is where I was going. They had also been traveling for about an hour, so we figured that we were probably about in the middle of 4N18.
They mentioned that they had come down one part that was very steep and that the passenger actually got out to walk, because the vehicle kept slipping and he needed her to spot him to make sure his tires were in the best place. They didn't think that they would have been able to go up that part and thought that I might not want to try it alone.
By the way, The Porche Cayenne has a sort of locking differential, which I got to see in action later when one of their wheels was about a foot off of the ground. It was pretty cool to see this in a "crossover." Of course, in the Jeep all of my wheels were firmly on the ground and I looked at that part of the trail as fairly tame even for my stock CJ-8.
We looked through all of the maps we had between us and found one map that had 2N23 on it. It connected 4N18 to Monte Cristo campground next to Angeles Forest Highway. It was indeed about half way down 4N18.
I decided to leave the 2nd half of 4N18 for another day when I wasn't solo and decided to follow them out to the highway, since they were already a bit apprehensive.
2N23 was fairly tame all the way out and had one minor stream crossing before we got to the campground.
It was about 5:30 pm and I had a choice to make. Call it a day or go back up to 3N17 and contine to Messenger Flat, North Fork and Live Oak campgrounds.
My gas guage is less than accurate and I decided to top off the tank in Tujunga and then go back to 3N17 to continue to explore. I figured that most of 3N17 was paved and that it shouldn't take long to get across.
It was about 6:30 pm when I got back to 3N17, which I knew left me about an hour and a half before the sun went down.
There were some side roads on 4N24, 4N32, 4N33 and 4N37 that were dirt, but I decided to leave them for another day and just stick to 3N17 with one side trip to Lightning Point. I was on the ridge of the Santa Clara Divide most of the time.
Although, I misjudged how long this 2nd half of he trip would take, it was a great night to be out driving in the forest.
The wildlife sightings were all on the 2nd half of this trip.
I had 3 sightings of deer with 2 deer in each sighting. I saw many quail, 2 owls, a red tailed hawk swooping down on it's prey, a jet black rabbit (I don't remember seeing anything, but light ones) and lots of squirrels.
The road varied from pretty good to lots of deep pot holes to dirt. The road out to Lightning Point was realy cool, but was closed before reaching the end.
The sunset was spectacular just before taking the road to Lightning Point and the twilight hours gave a beautiful light show of pink and purple hues across the mountains. Once it was dark I enjoyed the city lights in the distance beyond the shadows of the mountains all around me.
At one point, I started to see signs that said, "Keep Out, property of State Prison." That was strange and I obeyed by not going up any of those roads. I wasn't really looking for an extended stay.
I checked out the campgrounds along the way and made it to Little Tujunga Canyon Road by about 11:30 pm.
It took me about a half hour to get home from there.
My apologies for not bringing a camera. Next time!
Christian
Comment