r/socalhiking

This was the SECOND helicopter rescue at Santa Paula Punchbowls over the course of about 2 hrs. on Fri. 7/3. We didn't see it happen, but we heard that a woman went down the "waterslide" from the top (most people start at a dip just below the middle), lost control going too fast, then caught air at the bottom, hit her head, and ended up unresponsive in the water.

Big shout-out to the Ventura County Sheriff's SAR Medical team - their quick, professional work makes it look easy.

We saw them fly in and out for the first rescue prior to this (apparently due to a broken rib), and later in the day a teen broke his wrist on a cliff-jump right next to us but hiked out with his buds.

Take this as a regular reminder to be safe in the backcountry: know your limits, work up to any risky stuff incrementally, watch out for your friends, and don't let anyone goad you into stunts you're not 100% comfortable with.

On June 30th my friend and I climbed the regular northwest face of half dome. At about 6:30pm we were about 200 feet from the summit and noticed lots of rocks coming down from the top. At first we thought this was rockfall but we soon realized that these were intentionally being thrown. After yelling up to the people above they heard and acknowledged us with something unintelligible and continued to throw rocks. We had several watermelon sized rocks avoid our heads by just 2-3 feet when they tossed a block larger than my torso towards us. This rock missed us by only 2-3 feet as well. We called 911, who transferred us to a ranger, and since they had stopped throwing rocks by this point the ranger stated they would not be sending someone up the cables to investigate. If you hiked half dome on June 30th and have any possible leads please let us know.

first time on whitney. Whitney prep for two months before the trip was running twice a week, cucamonga, baldy, n gorgonio. Trail was pretty good aside from some slippery ice water in the early morning on the switchbacks n a small snow/ice section at the cables. didn’t need spikes though. took me about 14ish hours.

clutch pack items: my mom’s vegan tamales🫔 🫘🇲🇽, trekking poles, anker powerbank, lenny and larry’s big cookie or whatever tf that brand is called, sawyer squeeze, osprey 3L bladder, sofirn hs21 headlamps

Rewarding hike with constant gorgeous views so no hard feelings for the 20+ mile ass kicking. The John's meadow part was very slow and almost impossible to stay on "trail" - only 4 miles after 3 hours with almost no elevation gain. Bad day to wear shorts and also no gaiters- constant scaping of grass seeds, stinging nettle, and mostly I think ceanothus thorns.. The gullies on both lower sections were more intense than the peaks, some really sketchy exposures with no footing, I was treating it like winter. Farther up there doesn't seem to be a trial up Anderson ridge on either side but much easier to deal with than down below.

Worth mentioning I could have been screwed on water but came up super lucky - I drank almost all my water before even getting to the top, but somehow this glorious spring running strong at 9500 feet and filled up with enough for the rest of the day - thankfully since there was A LOT left and no other water.

One of the coolest things was seeing peaks in all directions I've either been to or have on radar - could even see surprisingly clear Cuyamaca which set me off on hiking in the mountains of Southern California a year ago

Took a trail new to me - up Mt. Lowe rd. from Cheney trail and thought it would be nice to make it a loop by hiking down to dawn mine via this connection to the dawn mine trail and back through the creek. We kept climbing higher and higher and when we got to the dawn mine trail it started okay, but then it became a thin trail made from slanted rock with loose rocks scattered about. This would be okay if the edge wasn’t a 200 ft drop off a cliff. I thought maybe it’d last just for a min so scooted on my bottom but then got really scared and just turned around and started back the way I came and took road back down. Has anyone done this section of trail before and safety navigated it or thought it was crazy? Wish I took pics of this section but I was too scared. I have many other pics of the road/earlier in the trail. Kicking myself for not thinking to take any.

Awesome overnight hike. Lots of elevation - totally worth it. Water was still flowing. Get a permit for overnight use, camp 200 ft from trail, and leave no trace! No better way to celebrate 250 years of this beautiful country.

Finally got around to editing my Big Pine Lakes hike from late May.

I've been coming here about once a year, and it's still one of my favorite hikes in the Sierra. Last summer I made it to all of the lakes, but coming a little earlier this year was a completely different experience with snow still hanging around.

The hike to Lake 2 is about 10 miles round trip with 2,500 ft of gain. It's a solid workout, but having plenty of creeks along the trail makes carrying a water filter an easy choice.

The weather was classic Sierra, blue skies in the morning, then clouds, wind, and even a little hail in the afternoon. That's Sierra magic.

Maybe next year I'll come back in the fall. I don't think I'll ever get tired of the Sierra.

I made a short video from the hike. I'll leave it in the comments if anyone wants to check it out.