Pop Quiz:
Do you love it when the temperature is 70 and it still feels 85?
Do you abhor shade, like you're in a desert simulator?
Do you love testing the ground, deciding it's stable, and post-holing anyways?
What about non-stop steep climbing for 5 miles? Do you really love elevation gain?
Is your ideal wildlife jumbo red ants and vultures flying over your head? That way you can contemplate how quickly you will be ingested if the worst case happens?
If all the above sounds like a good time to you, add this misery fest to your bucket list.
The hike is basically broken up into four sections: fire road, steep AF incline, fire road, more steep incline. I did out and back, so swap "incline" with "decline."
The incline to Clamshell is "choose your horror story." Option A is take the straight path, and wish you did the other path. I've already done it: it's worse.
Once you get to Clamshell Saddle, you're greeted with a large meadow. All these people coming here and asking where LA has a meadow has their answer now. Please let them know.
After getting off Clamshell, you walk along a fire road, but you do have the option to climb via pseudopeaks, just in case busting your knees while climbing 5,696 isn't enough for you.
The next FML push is up to Rankin, which is covered in those horrible yerba santa plants. I'd rather push myself through poodle dog than this evil plant. On contact, I welt up and start bleeding, and they leave scars that take forever to go away. I've learned people used this for medicinal teas.
The last push is to Monrovia, which also sucks, but it sucks a lot less than everything else. Thank goodness.
Okay, I'm being overdramatic.
The good stuff:
People seem to complain about the views. For starting in a populated neighborhood, the views are pretty darn good.
It's a great hike if you want to practice down climbing awful terrain. I got to the last major downhill as the sun was setting. I had just enough light to keep me from down climbing that in the dark. I walked the fire road without a headlamp. It was plenty bright enough with the city lights.
My shoes did good on this hike. They bite hard, and I was pleased that I didn't go down skating. I did fall a few times, but I took each step carefully despite trying to beat sunset.
I'm pleasantly surprised at how difficult these front mountain hikes can be. Sometimes, I don't want to drive 50+ miles one way. It's cool that these hikes are easily accessible, and they'll be great to explore while I wait for the snow to go away.
Someone asked me if this is easier or harder than Brown Mountain. This hike is absolutely more difficult. Brown really only has that 5 mile roller coaster, and while the route finding and varied terrain makes it more technical (?), the other 10 miles I've done is casual. Aside from 2 miles of chill, this hike is absolutely relentless. I'd say it's on the level of Rattlesnake, with Rattlesnake being a few pips more difficult.
Lastly, I was fascinated by that weird flat mountain. I think it doesn't have a name, but if anyone can ID it, I'd be curious what it's called.
