The Mount Wilton Trail, from Sierra Madre was officially reopened, but I guess it had to be very recent, as we encountered a lot of volunteers finishing to level up the trail on our way up. Sunday was a sunny and warm day, so it got toasty fairly early in the ascension! The part along the river was very pleasant as it was well fed with water, from the latest rains.
We hiked via First Water, Orchard Camp, Manzanita Bench to end up to the edge of the parking at Wilson. 3h 10min to hike our 7 miles up.
On the way down, we still had a fair amount of energy so we decided to add a Bonus Peak : Jones Peak! The trail to JP was pretty narrow and steep, and we saw a snake as the trail was quiet, unlike the main one to MW. The view from JP was pretty nice and we felt privileged as nobody was around.
On AllTrails, we saw another trail, which seemed like a shortcut going down from JP rejoining the main trail downhill from the South face, so we took it! Bad decision!! The trail actually looked like a ravine, which was so steep and washed out after the latest rains, therefore super sandy and slippery. Moreover, as we were literally alone in the middle of the vegetation, we could hear some suspicious noise coming from the bushes (mountain lions?!). Anyway, we took our time as sun was still up, secured our balance thanks to our trekking poles and we made it down to the main trail safely!
Total of 15 miles, 7h on the trails, 2 peaks, 1 snake and 1 (maybe) mountain lion!! 🙂
Responses
Yikes, I’ve heard of people seeing mountain lions up there. What exactly did you hear?