I went up Mt Gleason on with Joe and Erin. It’s a nice little trip, about 5 miles round trip, with an elevation gain of 1000′ or so, most of it on the Pacific Crest Trail. And you also get to drive on some small quantity of dirt road to get to the trailhead.
It was a great hike, but that evening however, my head started itching horribly, and the next morning I was all swollen and unhappy, and it turns out that something on that hike had given me a nice case of hives! woohoo!!
The yucca trees were in crazy full bloom though, which was entirely awesome.
Starting up the trail, we saw the oddest cairn in a tree.
The trip up was mostly uneventful. It cuts through both wood and chaparral, so you cut in and out of shade all the way there. On the way , you can catch some glimpses out into the Mojave, which is an odd thing to see when you are walking through a forested mountain.
At the summit, we actually ran into the Caltech/JPL ham radio people, as they were finishing up with Field Day. There is an old, windy, decrepit Air Force built road to the top of the mountain, and they took that up. They were just leaving, but they were nice enough to give us a couple ice cold cans of coca-cola, which I have to say were awfully refreshing after hiking a couple of miles on a hot day, much as I normally don’t really drink coke.
Right beneath the summit, there is this little left over building, from the Air Force.
Otherwise, the view was mostly uninspiring, although pleasant.
I did really like how this tree has its cones hanging right from the tips of its branches though, and how it looks almost 2D in this image.
And I just can’t get over how trees can pull up such freaking huge rocks when they fall over. There must have been some bigger ones that I saw, but this is the best picture that I ended up with.
