My Daughter, Iris, and I had been talking about doing more ‘big' hikes but time always caught up with us and we never planned for one. We climbed Mt Whitney 4 years ago, but nothing since. Then we found the SixPackofPeaks challenge and this was exactly the incentive we needed to finally do it.
Mount Wilson is just over a 1-hour drive from where we live and what a nice hike it is. Given the warnings in the description, we arrived at 6 AM and we were glad we did. The parking lot was already getting full. The trail starts downhill first but then follows a creek (barely any water when we hiked). The trail is dotted with old, small cabins and we could not help but wonder how cool it would be to sleep in one (Airbnb?), but also how much manual effort much have gone into building them. They are all fairly well maintained and we loved them. We took the detour to the waterfall, but that was really more a water trickle in mid Summer. To be expected with the lack of rainfall we had recently. Several people took a steep shortcut to the trail from the waterfall. I don't like that. It speeds up erosion and, are you really in that much of a hurry? We walked back the trail to the fork and started up the trail. At this moment I really enjoyed my GAIA GPS app as recommended on the map. I had downloaded the GPX file and recorded our hike. A fun way to know what you did, but GAIA GPS does a really good job at showing you where to go. The maps are very easy to scale and I have set my tracking arrow to point to the top of my phone so in case of doubt, it is easy to swing around your phone and confirm you are taking the right trail in a fork.
The following part of the trail up to Camp Sturtevant is fairly easy going and very beautiful. The trail is well maintained and you just enjoy the scenery. Soon after Camp Sturtevant, the trail gets steeper and hikers start to huff and puff. Just keep going and feel happy that you are not climbing in the full sun. The Mt Wilson Observatory (actually more an observatory village, or is it a James Bond villain hideout?) suddenly came around the corner. We did not see it coming and were happily surprised. Definitely check out Cosmic Cafe just before the parking lot where you start your descent. It has enough of the salty, greasy, flavourful stuff you crave after a good climb. We chilled out for 1 hour and started our descent. The beginning takes you through some scarred landscape as a strong reminder that a wildfire is always just around the corner in SoCal and can wipe out the beautiful forest you just climbed. Shortly after you follow a fire road that is nothing special and we were happy that the trail veered off to the left and brought us back in the forest and the shade. The descent is fast and relatively easy. At camp Hoegee, we decided to deviate from the SocialHiker downloaded route and take the upper Creek trail instead. It starts with a small climb, but then levels out and gives you amazing views all the way down.
I would have killed for the cold beer that was advertised for the little cafe near the parking lot, but we did not find it and left without.
A super nice hike and very well described on the website.
We are looking forward to the next.