There was Five of Us, Five against the world. Five against poodle dog bush. Five trying to summit five peaks in one day (maybe as an homage to Cinco De Mayo?), we had a plan, would we succeed?
First up, getting to the San Gabriel saddle, the weigh-station for numerous peaks in the Angeles. The going was rough, despite the general flatness of the trail, there were tunnels my friends
And beautiful mountains surrounding us, trying to lure us to hike them instead.
But much like Odysseus, we lashed our minds to our mental masts (say that five times fast) and proceeded forward to San Gabriel Peak.
First Peak: San Gabriel
Of the five peaks, SG has the second most difficult approach. There are lots of switchbacks, lots of elevation gain in a short amount of time.Gain it we did, making our way up through the impressive remnants of the 2007 Station Fire.
To the peak we went and obtained the summit disc action photo which I know you all covet!
1 summit disc was not enough to quench our thirst my friends, no! We must drink deeply from the troughs of other summits!
Second Peak: Mt. Disappointment
What can I say? It was true to its word.
When you hike on pavement
to a concrete summit several hundred feet below San Gabriel?
Well the peak lives up to its name. ONWARD!
Third Peak: Mt. Deception
Deception, it comes from Latin, the first part "Decep" means "false summit" and the second part "Tion" means "crushing your dreams".
"Let's go up to the summit. What, that is not the summit?" Etc.
Its a fine trail, lots of the poodle dog bush, a bit steep and scambly in parts, but all in all, THIS mountain also lives up to its name.
Fourth Peak: Mt. Markham
This is a bitch, no two ways about it. You hike ridgelines, you battle poodle dog bush, you scramble up the sides of the mountain, you hike more ridgelines. Then you get a weirdo summit cylinder.
Unless you really want to hike this one, let it go, just let it go...
Fifth Peak: Mt. Lowe
Oh Mt. Lowe, how you thwarted me during my not-so-recent sojourn to Inspiration Point where I didn't feel inclined to go up you. How I suffered the slings and arrows of regret for not summiting you but on this day, summit I did!
Lowe provides beautiful views of most of the Angeles and I could see the other mountains crying that I did not summit them this day
as this was number five. Numero Cinco! All those other mountains could wait another day as I could not wait to get down off of Mt. Lowe and into a cold beer and warm pizza.
I gained many summits on this day but in retrospect, five is a bit much but an accomplishment nonetheless. It was also great to summit them with some of SoCal's finest bloggers, Josh, Zac, Jeff and Derek.
Final Note: Be WARNED about this area. It is full of the lousy good for nothin poodle dog bush, a nasty customer to be avoided at all costs. The area is rife, rife I tells you with it so perhaps best to stay clear or proceed with caution.
Here is a summary from Jeff about the outting: http://socalhiker.net/2013/05/hiking-san-gabriel-peak-mt-disappointment-deception-markham-lowe/
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