No, it didn’t snow here in Pasadena. Quite the contrary, today was the hottest day of the year so far, with temps in the low-to-mid 90s for the better part of the afternoon. Katie and I got some much needed rest, and headed up into the mountains to resume our recent tradition of hiking on Saturday afternoon. Since it was so warm in the lowlands, we planned to head up around 4500 feet and then hike Strawberry Peak at 6164 feet. Heading up the Angeles Crest Highway, we quickly became aware that the road was open through to Islip Saddle, which is in the highest part of the San Gabriels and about 40 miles from Pasadena. The road has been closed completely or limited to snow chains since the stoms from late December through Februrary buried the road in 5-10 feet of snow. The spring thaw and rains in March did a good deal of damage as well, causing the ever-present landslides to close the road in various places that the snow didn’t. Feeling adventurous, we decided to head past our original destination and explore the road as far as we could go.

Now, for those of you that haven’t hiked with me, or have never spent any time with me in Colorado, you’ll have to know that there are two things I can’t resist in the outdoors. First, I like elevation. More specifically, I like gaining elevation. I used to have a habit in Colorado of driving to the top of really high passes just to feel the thin, crisp mountain air. And of course, I’ve always had a thing for climbing Fourteeners – mountains that top out over 14,000 feet. Second, I like snow. I drove to Colorado once for a weekend just to see the first snow of the year. We left Friday night, drove all night, and sat in the car as it snowed. We had a few Snow Margaritas, got some sleep, and drove back to Texas the next day. So, driving an extra 30 minutes on the Angeles Crest just to get to the snow didn’t take much convincing.

We made it to Islip, and met a nice fellow in the parking lot named Larry who worked at JPL and moonlighted at REI in Arcadia. As he informed us that he had tried to find one trail and failed because of the snow, and that he had been forced to turn back some way up the second trail because of a hairy traverse in the snow, I started thinking that maybe we were in a bit over our heads this time. But, the weather was nice, 20 degrees cooler than Pasadena, so we decided to give it a go anyway. Interestingly, as it turned out, Larry was from Ft. Worth, TX and had only been in CA for a few years.

I was happy to find snow about half a mile up the trail. However, a nice walk through the snow soon turned rather treacherous when the trail dissappeared into about 3-5 feet of snow on a 40 degree slope. The warm weather had softened the snow, and every step was close to a long slide down the slope. About 200 feet after Larry’s tracks ended, we turned back ourselves. We’ll have to wait a few more weeks before we try for Mt. Islip again.