On May 6, 2006, I went up Mt Hillyer right up here in the San Gabriels. It was me, Dan, Erin, Alex, Chris and Daphne. This is hike 58 in Trails of the Angeles (although I have the prior edition). It’s definitely a midrange hike, 6 miles RT, with 1k’ of gain.
The hike:
So, you know, we start the hike.
Note that Horse Flats Campground is only a mile up the trail We also could have started the hike there. Some people are sort of like “why hike somewhere you can drive to?”, but that would have made the hike just a wee bit too short in my opinion. (oh, and it starts at Chilao campground, which is pretty nice).
The Silver Moccasin Trail as listed on the sign is this 53 mi Boy Scout trail, that someday maybe I’ll do all at once. Who knows.
Most of the hike is just through random rolling hills covered in loose trees and chaparral, with some nice canyon views, but there were also some awesome boulders just chilling out up there.
Here Chris has clambered up on top of a bunch of them, and is staring down at us little bugs.
Daphne also wanted a chance to wedge herself into some rocks.
This trail was mostly uneventful. Easy grade, pleasant views, although it was a bit hot (as a lot of hikes up there are wont to be). You can barely tell when you hit the peak, because it basically has a big flat top. We’re pretty sure we went right past it, but we found some more nice rocks and had lunch before we turned back to get to the actual peak.
We think this was the summit
One of the nicer basic views I’ve had in the San Gabes.
Then , you know, we came down. On the way down, at the Horse Flats campground, we actually ran into a bunch of emergency firemen type people (or boy scout training? something). and they gave us muffins and drinks and were really friendly. So this makes twice I’ve gone on hikes up around there and been given nice cold sodas. It’s kind of weird going hiking in such used forest, but it’s kind of fascinating at the same time.
Oh! there were also these awesome leaves that had totally dried out, just leaving their wispy skeletal remains. So Chris decided to use them as ears. Fun for all involved.
