Getting Lost In The Woods

[Houston Mahoney]

Hey!
I live in Los Angeles and I am looking to recharge for a night or two. I would really like to pitch my tent somewhere out in the woods where I can have a campfire and just find some solitude. Preferably somewhere within driving distance of LA.
Suggestions?

Thanks for your time and help!

I am from Georgia and I guess I just miss being able to get out into the woods, cook my own food and read in some silence.

[Chuck Gerner]

I’ve been on only one hike where nobody else was in the campsite, and that was I think due to it being a Friday night. Just about any hike-in campsite in the Angeles National Forest is likely to be empty on a Friday. The forest service website is your friend: http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/angeles/home

I grew up in PA and spent a lot of time hiking the western half of the state with my parents, what with all the gorgeous valleys and moraines from retreating glaciers during the last Ice Age. And I too started to go crazy with the density, bustle and noise of LA (which usually balances with the culture and weather and variety on the positive side).

I can recommend three campgrounds to you because I’ve been to them and found that they quenched whatever it was inside me that needed to get into the out.

1. Hoegees Campground. On the Upper Winter Creek Trail, about 2.5 miles in from Chantry Flat is Hoegees, which is broad, shady with plenty of trees, pit toilet, has a good cold stream, and also the foundations of several old buildings back from when it was a resort. One of them still has a chimney and fireplace! Plenty of dry downed wood to glean. The upper trail has a climb up road switchbacks at the start, but the payoff is the trail runs much higher along the mountain’s line and the views are spectacular. Walking back in the morning on moist days you’ll see vapor wisps flying just overhead as the sun rises. Or, you can hike up to Mt. Wilson the next day.

Parking is a nightmare, with the lot often filling up by 6:30 AM and people parked as much as a mile down the road by 8 AM on weekends. However staying here on a Friday night – hit the trail by 3:30 in winter and you’ll be at camp before dark – there was no problem whatsoever getting a spot.

2. Bear Canyon Camp is roughly 4 miles in from the Switzer parking area that is off CA-2. The terrain of the hike changes several times between valley glen and desert mountainside, with a descent in the middle that becomes a wicked climb later on. The camp is very similar to Hoegees, but there did not appear to be a pit toilet there.

NOTE: Do not attempt to hike past the campground. Last August there were monsoon winds and the place is all downed timber, hundreds of oaks sprawled across the width of the canyon for about a mile. I know the length because when I hiked in from that direction to the campsite via Eaton Saddle, I did not know about the trees and spent about three hours in pouring rain traversing over, under and around trunks to get that last mile to the camp right as full dark set. The good news is I found out what was absolutely waterproof and what wasn’t.

3. Little Jimmy Trail Camp. The first mile of this hike is quite a gainer, with the first 1/10 mile being a real crusher. But after about a third of a mile you come into gorgeous pine forest on the north side of a mountain at 7300 feet. Starts at 7000, with Little Jimmy at about 8200 and 2 miles in – a good trail for acclimating to altitude hiking. There’s a spring about a quarter-mile outside the camp that flows even in winter. Substantial camp; even with a few others there you’d not feel cramped. Also leads on to longer hikes to Throop Peak and Baden-Powell. It’s located where the 2 is currently closed off about 45 miles once you take the exit off the 210.

But like I said, use the forest service page to begin exploring. I haven’t even mentioned the fantastic winter hiking to be done in the desert, or north of Santa Barbara. Enjoy losing yourself out there.

[Author]

Posts