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Peak Mt Wilson
Group My own awesome hike buddies!
Trailhead Willow something or other from upper parking lot

4 words: Bugs…Poison…Oak…Switchbacks 🙁

Just like San Jacinto welcomed us with open arms, Mt. Wilson made it clear it did not want us there. My group got to our meet spot late, but the Chantry Flats road gate opened a half hour late too, at 6:30 instead of 6 am (it closes at 8 pm too, we found out). So much for our 6 am start, and we were under time constraints today for a group member. Driving on Santa Anita Ave after it becomes single lane Chantry Flats Rd is a section of road that is 1 lane due to road collapse, and it most def is a squirrley mtn road, for those of you who get carsick or are prone to vertigo.

Not even 1/3 of the way in, 2 members of our very strong group got stung within seconds of each other from some sort of mildly venomous bug like a yellow jacket, hornet, or nasty biting fly, that went through their leggings (!) and caused each to stop in their tracks, tho it left no stinger. They are tough and continued the hike, tho both had small falls later in part cause the leg still felt off. Scary!

The next 1/3 was Poison Oakville – and I mean EVERYWHERE on the sides of the trail with leaves on the trail. I was uber careful to avoid it and took off my clothes wearing plastic gloves and painstakingly folding over my leggings, and I still got a few small red irritation spots right at my gaiter line above my ankle. Btw Prid is the best thing for it to draw out the yuck, and for me the spots are tiny, mild and do not itch. Also, I am currently on the second hot water wash of my hiking clothes and will have to hand wash wearing disposable gloves my boots and CamelBak as even tho when I set it down to get food out, the oak was so pervasive I have to assume everything may have oil on it, which does not break down on its own. Not my idea if fun.

This section was also Switchbackville – many, many and almost a constant climb. Take a hydration/nutrition break first.

It was Bug City as well, mostly pesky gnats. We all donned our bug headnets – highly recommended for this hike and cheap at REI. I heard a few bigger flying something or others while I was running back down, but I just ran faster to get away from them, after the stinging of my 2 friends earlier.

The top 1/3, the poison oak thinned out, as did the bugs (but we kept our nets on until the parking lot), and we came to The Bench, my group’s turnaround point due to time. I went ahead – still more switchbacks, and a trail junction with the Old Toll Road, at which point the trail becomes a rather rough gravel road to the peak. Not as bad as the switchbacks but still kind of tedious as the gravel was loose.

I took one photo at a nice viewing area – that’s it. I wax so done at that point and really wiggy about being utterly alone in a place I had never been. I raced up as fast as I could but spent no time near the top as I did not want to walk the 6 or 7 mi back alone – the trail was freakishly almost empty the entire way. Wilson has no marker anyways to take a photo of, and I thought the mtn view was more attractive than radio and TV towers.

As it was, I had to mindfully trail run about 3 mi down to catch my group, who had started hiking back and are a fast group. The birds were singing nicely, and I saw some cute lizards and thankfully no bears, but if I ever do Wilson again, it will be much earlier in the season when the poison oak is dormant.

We completed the hike in about 4 1/2 hrs incl a few stops, which was a very fast pace, and I was pretty surprised and happy I caught up to them! But after the bugs, the poison oak, the desolation…we were all glad to get back to our cars! What views there were early were obscured by the lower level marine layer, another reason I just got a pretty surrounding peak photo at the top.

If you go in the summer – wear long pants and ideally long sleeves, bring and use bug spray and a bug net, and be prepared to decontaminate your stuff as some of the poison oak was hanging into the trail, and there were leaves of it on the trail you could not avoid.

But I did it, and another peak down – 4 to go!

3 Responses

  1. Actually it was the Winter Creek Trail. The marker said 5 mi but the marker was a little up from the parking area. I logged closer to 12 mi out and back but that was also from midlevel parking.

  2. And yeah the trail does end uphill. Most in our group also have done San Jacinto, 2 of us a week ago, and we were all totally laughing and saying “Not again!” as San Jac via the Tram has that uphill ramp back to the station. 🙂

    Much cooler today and would have been really pretty if not for all the poison oak and watching out for those nasty stinging bugs. So we could not admire the views too much; had to constantly focus on the trail.

  3. Called the ranger station today to report the poison oak. Ranger was happy I called – they don’t have the resources to regularly walk all of the trails. He said he would have someone cut the poison oak back and encouraged everyone to call the local ranger station if they spot any kind of trail problem, poison ivy/oak, etc.

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