Trekking up Mt. Wilson is something I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. So when my friend Crystal forwarded me an invitation to go, I knew I had to. Now, I’ll say this, going into this hike (and it was a LOT of hiking), I was pretty nervous about it because I’ve always heard how difficult and challenging Mt. Wilson is and yes, the possibility of running into bears did cross my mind. Of course, I wasn’t going to let any of that stop me. But I really had no idea what was in store for me this day.
A couple of weekends ago, on an Saturday morning, I drove out to Sierra Madre and met up with my friends, Crystal and Roxanne. It was a cold dark morning and I made sure I had my headlamp packed since I had forgotten it the week before during an early morning run. Completely forgot about that whole Daylight Savings thing. Not a problem this time around.
Right onto the trail it was quickly apparent we were going to be climbing and climbing. While we didn’t have any sort of direction, I was able to find a mileage guide online to give us an idea of where were should go because I read the trail wasn’t marked well, but there were indeed directional signs at each rest area which pointed us where we needed to go.
The trail itself was fairly rocky with technical stretches. No smooth buttery trails here. At times we had to jump over a little stream, crawl over a downed tree, and crawl under a downed tree.
We made our way up with very little trouble for the first 3.5 miles and even stopped at Orchard Camp for a few minutes which is half way to the top of Mt. Wilson. Thought maybe they had apples here for us, but no. Before leaving the area we made sure we read the sign of where to go and we proceeded. Maybe a half mile later we came across a dead end. Well, it appeared to be a dead end, because it was this slanted pile of boulders. We stopped and questioned where we would have made a wrong turn. There was nowhere we could have veered off trail and this left us scratching our heads. Did we go the wrong way? After we realized we were exactly where we needed to be, my heart sank knowing the only way to keep going is to make it over these rocks. Ugh.
Roxanne made it over first effortlessly, to check how far this stretch goes. It only went as far as where the green ends in the photo below. Right there, we turn a corner (literally) and it’s regular rocky trail. Crystal started to make her way slowly over, and I started to say my prayers. As I started to take my sweet little time, I didn’t know how to maneuver or place my feet and I tried not to look over to my left too much because that’s a drop-off right there. It doesn’t flatten out and stop. If we slipped, we would’ve slipped down for awhile. Yeah, I was scared.
If this type of situation was a regular occurrence during my trail time I probably would’ve been more comfortable with this portion, but I was clearly out of my comfort zone. I mean, I don’t think I’ve hugged so many rocks in my life! I’m sure there are a whole slew of people who make it over without a bat of an eyelash. I batted many eyelashes.
The only thing that could have been potentially disastrous (as in lack of photos disastrous) is this — as I was a couple of feet from the other side, I was leaning over and grabbing hold of the rocks, just then my camera slipped out of my hydration pack and luckily landed on a flat surface. Had it bounced off a rock, it would’ve flown down the mountain and there goes all my photos. That’s why I’m sharing a whole bunch of photos because I’m grateful Roxanne went back to retrieve it for me. Thank you Roxanne!
We made our way over and ran into a guy who was patiently waiting for us to cross over. Initially I thought he was about to make his way back again on his return trip, but he, like ourselves was on his first trek up Mt. Wilson and didn’t know if he was going in the right direction. I guess we looked so confident about where we were going. [A funny side note here: last weekend I ran with Crystal and Roxanne and a couple other friends in Griffith Park and we ran into this same guy!!! What are the chances of that even happening? LA is a small town.]
We met quite a few people on this trail today and one of them was training for Angeles Crest 100. Rafael was running up and down the same portion and based on the area he was running he had to cross the scary portion several times. I’m sure he flew over it.
About another mile or so we finally hit a resting place! The bench! I was seriously so happy to see this bench. At this point we were around 5 miles into the hike up and we stopped to refuel with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, and water and rest for a few minutes before making our last couple of miles up to the top.
It was here we caught our first glimpse of the Mt. Wilson radio towers and it would seem like all we had to do was walk up the hill and make a couple of turns and we’d be at the top, but nooo. We were still 2 miles away.
Up some switchbacks, we made our way up and over the rocky terrain. It was here I realized we were on a portion of the AC100 course – a race that intrigues me and terrifies me at the same time (much like The Barkley Marathon). And the views we were starting to get were absolutely magnificent! Any photo I post does not do the views we saw that day any justice.
The last half mile to the top was all really technical rocky terrain. It was extremely difficult for us to do any running here for fear if we’d step wrong. I’d be the first to admit I’m not a strong technical runner. At all. Being that high up and suddenly turn an ankle would be heartbreaking for any of us so we took our time and enjoyed the sights and conversations. So far it’s been a really great hike even with all the climbing. That’s pretty much all we did was climb and climb all the way up. There really isn’t any downhill portions until the way back down.
During this last stretch to the top, we ran into some guys who told us “you’re almost at the top.” In fact, many people who were coming back down told us these same words. I started to wonder where this “top” was because it seemed to have taken forever. But then coming out of this trail and reaching the parking lot, we made it!
Those same guys also told us something else, “when you get to the top there’s free lemonade and coffee.” What??? No way. Clearly they were joking with us. But lo and behold, once we made it to the top, we went over to where the cafe is (it was closed and was to open the week after we did this), and there was lemonade, coffee, hot cocoa, tea, hot water, and bathrooms! It was an oasis! I enjoyed some lemonade and we sat at the picnic tables and ate some snacks we had, resting a bit before making our way back down.
There was a box to accept donations for all these freebies and I had a couple of dollars with me to contribute. One man — the same man who took our photo as we sat on the bench a couple miles back — donated $3.00 in our honor, being that it was our first time up Mt. Wilson. That was very kind of him to do so.
After we rested for a little bit and enjoyed the view, it was time to make our way back down. While we hiked all the way up, I was ready for the downhill. On our way back, just before we hit up that scary portion again (ok I was not looking forward to this part), we ran into Rafael, the man training for AC100. We chatted with him for a while and talked about his training and he even shared some of his fruit with us. Sometimes when he works late he runs up Mt. Wilson at 2AM and I gotta say I was shocked when I heard this. I mean, is this common? I’m definitely not in that same category of ultra runners. Not yet at least.
Of course, we had to wonder if he runs into any wildlife because bears are known to roam in these San Gabriel Mountains. He said he’s never had a run-in and then tells us “you probably were walking near a bear today and didn’t even know it.” WHAT? We could’ve but from what I heard bears try to leave us alone as long as we don’t appear threatening. But then what if we came around a corner and it was there, then what?
I think I was still stuck on the fact he runs up here at 2AM to even be concerned about bears or the fact we were about to cross over those slanted boulders again.
As we parted, he wished us good luck at our races and I told him I’ll hopefully see him at mile 95 at AC100 as I’m hoping to volunteer there again this year. I may need to rope in Crystal and Roxanne for that too. 😉
When all was done with this day on Mt. Wilson, we covered 15 miles and 5700+ elevation gain and I finally got to do what I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. And the weather was absolutely perfect for it — cold in the morning, cool and breezy throughout the day, and it didn’t get warm until we were almost finished. We even got to run a nice clip the final couple of miles. But even with that scary portion for me, I’d do this same trek again.
Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!
Great info on your first hike up to Mt. Wilson. Sounds like you had a blast. I’ve hiked up to the 3.5 mile point but ran out of time and had to head back. I’m looking forward to heading up there to hike all the way up. I grew up in nearby Pasadena but was mostly a stream hopping canyon/waterfalls dweller in my youth.
It’s a great hike and yes very challenging in more ways than one! 🙂
Right after Leona Divide I chatted with a friend and actually mentioned your blog post because I’ve also wanted to do the Mt. Wilson hike. I mentioned the rock “scramble” and my friend said she didn’t remember that on the trail. I didn’t realize that there were two main trailheads in that general area and I thought you had gone up Chantry. Anyways, I did the whole climb on Saturday and it was pretty awesome. The mile or so just after that rock scramble is, uh, pretty challenging. Hope things are going well on the job front. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and don’t hesitate to reach out if I can help with a business intro.
Scramble! Is that what it’s called? Yeah, I didn’t care for that portion too much. We went up via Sierra Madre. Haven’t done Chantry yet. Definitely a very challenging hike! Thank you!