Reply To: Mt. Wilson trail

[Debra G.]

Happy Tuesday! I wanted to give everyone an update on my hike up Wilson this past Saturday, Feb 18th. First, thank you to EVERYONE for your notes and advise. It came in handy. The weather was PERFECT! We could not have chosen a better day to hike Wilson.

We started from Chantry Flats and took the trail to the right to Sturtavent Camp. Advise: There is a large bolder/rock about 30 feet in that you have to climb up and over. It can be deceiving so you might think that it is not a trail. I actually questioned if this was the trail. It is! Walking along the creek and above the water falls was beautiful, but there was a section of the trail that looks like a recent rock slide occurred. We literally scaled the wall at this spot. I am attaching a photo so you can see it. Be very careful and take note that some sections of this part of the hike is only 18″ wide with a drop down on one side. If you are afraid of heights, this might be a little sketchy for you. But this was the most scenic part of the hike.

Once the trail opened up and we made it to the camp, we hung out for a bit and drank some complementary tea that the lovely lady who was running the camp was offering. You CAN REFILL or top off your water here. This is the last place to top off your water before you get to the top. Also, just before arriving at the camp, you will see two shacks with toilets. If you are brave enough to go in them, these are the last public toilets before you reach the top. The smell was awful so we preferred to be one with nature. The remaining 2.8 miles is a thigh burner, but alas we arrived at the summit. It was beautiful. We ate lunch at the tables under the pavilion where Cosmos cafe is located. The cafe is still closed but there is a water refill station in one of the corners. It is blue and looks fairly new. The toilets up here are nice, clean and they have TP.

We easily found the trail down back down. The trail head is located at the end of the main parking lot where the cement blocks are placed to stop cars from going over the look out point. It was easy to find our way down, passing through the burnt section and past the newer fire roads, until we came to the very nice and modern wood bench that is under a tree. There are two trails here. One to the right and one to the left. Take the one to the left just next to the bench if you are going back to Chantry Flats. I have no clue where the other trail leads. There is not a sign at this location.

We casually made our way down until we got to the Upper Trail sign. We took the Upper trial to the right which took us back up the hill a ways. Thank you Tyler for letting me know that it goes up hill a bit because I would have been concerned that I was on the wrong trail. This was a beautiful 3 mile hike back to the picnic tables. I highly recommend this over the lower creek trail and the awful paved road. I heard there was a bear on the lower creek trail so I am glad we chose to go in this direction. We hiked 15 miles total and our moving time was 8 hours and 12 seconds. We also arrived at the parking lot at 6:25am and just missed the last spot so we parked just outside the lot on the street.

Good Luck to those who will be hiking Wilson!