Rattlesnake Peak

D

Detour

Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
185
I enjoy seeing all of your pictures from your wilderness adventures so I thought I'd share a hike I took last month to Rattlesnake Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains of L.A. county.

I got off to an early start

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I almost stepped on this guy on the way up. It's some variety of the western rattlesnake but I'm not sure which one.

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On the way up you can see the tunnels to nowhere. It's a road that L.A. county started building in the 60's but never completed. There are two tunnels under the mountains and the road ends just past the second tunnel.

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About a third of the way up you get a good view of Iron mountain (foreground) and Mt. Baldy, where the hiker died last weekend.

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This section seemed technical at first but I found a way to get around without ropes.

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Here's a rock pile on the other side that was fun to climb.

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A peak near the top offered a nice place to rest and rehydrate

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The top of the mountain!

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I'm not sure why the elevation is rubbed off the marker. I read the San Gabriel mountains grow by a few inches each year.

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A view from the top

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I took my Scrapper 5 this trip

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Hope you enjoyed them.
 
Detour said:
I almost stepped on this guy on the way up. It's some variety of the western rattlesnake but I'm not sure which one.

Rattlesnakesuccess027.jpg


(Why can't I find hunting clothes with this good of camo on them . . . :) )

Detour, great shots & beautiful country. Those shots of the hillside & some of those rockpiles explain pretty much how that hiker lost her life last week. Looks like you could really get into some serious trouble if you are not careful & watching what you are doing.
Great day, thanks for letting us come with you.
Be safe.
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wonderful pics sometimes the mountains majesty is best defined w/o too many trees. air looks much better than l.a. where i lived for 10 years. my guess is that not much water is available as in their sisters the sierras. thanks for the fresh air
dennis
 
Alright, localmotion! Great pictures man it is nice to see photos of the mountains I see everyday off the 210! Did the snake rattle?
 
Thanks for the comments guys. The mountains here are beautiful but can be treacherous. There is very little water. I read that a woman died on Rattlesnake because she tried doing it in the summertime and hadn't brought enough water along. It was in the high 70's when I hiked it and I took about 3 liters+a Gatorade and drank it all before I got back to the car.

No the rattlesnake didn't rattle. I think it was too cold early in the morning. It was gone by the time I came back down the trail.
 
Stunning pics buddy, thanks for sharing them !

How ya liking that Scrapper 5 ?
 
Great pics, man. Looks like a great time. So those tunnels are just half-dug into the mountains and empty? Sounds like those would be cool to check out just for the sake of checking them out. Thanks for sharing!

-Nadz
 
Great pics, and that's an awesome rattler, haven't seen that coloring before.
 
This was actually the first time I took the Scrapper 5 out of the house and all I used it for was to open lunch. Honestly I could have gotten by with a SAK but its nice having a capable fixed blade handy if you need it. It raises a good point though about how much knife you really need when you travel into the wilderness.

In the Angeles the forest service generally frowns upon cutting wood and starting fires. I feel a knife is essential if an emergency came up where I needed to spend the night on the mountain but in general the S5 was overkill for what turned out to be a day hike. It doesn't weigh very much so it still seemed worth carrying to me though.

As far as the tunnels go they are a lot of fun to explore but have become a popular destination and the trail sees a lot of hikers on weekends. I like taking the Rattlesnake trail because I rarely see anyone up there. The trail head for Rattlesnake Peak is about a mile into the tunnel trail. I'd like to get further into the wilderness but I'm also raising three kids so its a rare day I can actually get out to go hiking on a trail like this. I've got my sights set on Iron mountain next.
 
Detour said:
This was actually the first time I took the Scrapper 5 out of the house and all I used it for was to open lunch. Honestly I could have gotten by with a SAK but its nice having a capable fixed blade handy if you need it. It raises a good point though about how much knife you really need when you travel into the wilderness.

In the Angeles the forest service generally frowns upon cutting wood and starting fires. I feel a knife is essential if an emergency came up where I needed to spend the night on the mountain but in general the S5 was overkill for what turned out to be a day hike. It doesn't weigh very much so it still seemed worth carrying to me though.

As far as the tunnels go they are a lot of fun to explore but have become a popular destination and the trail sees a lot of hikers on weekends. I like taking the Rattlesnake trail because I rarely see anyone up there. The trail head for Rattlesnake Peak is about a mile into the tunnel trail. I'd like to get further into the wilderness but I'm also raising three kids so its a rare day I can actually get out to go hiking on a trail like this. I've got my sights set on Iron mountain next.
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Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it !;)
 
Without too much experience with the herp, it looks like a juvenile Southern Pacific Rattlesnake to me. Glorious picture

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