San Gabriel Mountains Hike Day 4

FOURTH DAY
OF THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS GEOTREK
MESSENGER FLATS CAMPGROUND TO
MILL CREEK SUMMIT PICNIC AREA

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Hiking on June 7 was all on the Pacific Crest Trail. Messenger Flats Camp (5,870 ft) - 0.8 mi - cross dirt road on north ridge of Mount Gleason (6,410 ft) - 3.9 mi - cross small canyon (5,195 ft) - 0.8 mi - Big Buck Trail Camp (5,500 ft) - 0.6 - pass side trail (5,640 ft) - 3.1 mi - cross Mount Gleason Road (5,590 ft) - 2.6 mi - Mill Creek Summit Picnic Area (4,910 ft). Total distance = 11.8 mi. General elevation gain = 985 feet. General elevation loss = 1,945 feet.

Geology included Mendenhall Gneiss (~1.7 Ga) roof pendants, intruded by San Gabriel Anorthosite (~1.2 Ga) anorthosite, leucogabbro, and hornblende-gabbro, intruded by Lowe Fm. (~220 Ma) porphyritic hornblende and biotite granodiorite.

If you wish to see an enlarged version of any of the pictures below, click inside the small version.

Here's the Day 4 hiking group ready to leave from Messenger Flats Campground. From left to right are Sue Fritsche, Ida Husk (hiking friend of Leni Field), Leni Field (CSUN alumnus and part-time geology instructor), and Pam Irvine (from the California Geological Survey in Los Angeles).
A short while after leaving Messenger Flats we were able to look back at the ground covered on Day 3 of the hike. Messenger Flats Campground is in the ponderosa pine forest in the center of the photo. Magic Mountain (where we started on Day 3) is the mountain two ridges directly behind Messenger Flats (with two towers on top and in front of the cloud bank below in the Santa Clara Valley). The most distant ridge on the left is the Santa Susana Mountains, and the mountain on the left just in front of the Santa Susana Mountains is where we started on Day 2.
Ida, Sue, Pam, and Leni hike along the Pacific Crest Trail through a pleasantly shady live oak forest.
After a few hours we came to a nice little creek where we took a break and cooled ourselves off.
It was starting to get warm by lunch time, but we found a nice pine tree to provide shade for us during lunch.
Because the purpose of this GeoTrek for some of the participants was to learn something about the geology of the San Gabriel Mountains, we stopped at numerous rock exposures to examine the rocks.
The mountain on the skyline is Mount Gleason. We started today's hike on the far side of Mount Gleason and came around the right slope of the mountain.
We made it to Mill Creek Summit Picnic Area in relatively good shape after our 11.8 mile hike for the day.

Go to the route description for the fifth day of the hike.
Return to the CSUN hike index.
Return to the Coast Geological Society hike index.
Return to the First United Methodist Church, Reseda hike index.

THIS PAGE LAST MODIFIED ON JUNE 11, 2006

If you have questions or comments, you may leave a message at:
a.eugene.fritsche@csun.edu

	Here's the Day 4 hiking group ready to leave from Messenger Flats Campground. From left to right are Sue Fritsche, Ida Husk (hiking friend of Leni Field), Leni Field (CSUN alumnus and part-time geology instructor), and Pam Irvine (from the California Geological Survey in Los Angeles).
	A short while after leaving Messenger Flats we were able to look back at the ground covered on Day 3 of the hike. Messenger Flats Campground is in the ponderosa pine forest in the center of the photo. Magic Mountain (where we started on Day 3) is the mountain two ridges directly behind Messenger Flats (with two towers on top and in front of the cloud bank below in the Santa Clara Valley). The most distant ridge on the left is the Santa Susana Mountains, and the mountain on the left just in front of the Santa Susana Mountains is where we started on Day 2.
	Ida, Sue, Pam, and Leni hike along the Pacific Crest Trail through a pleasantly shady live oak forest.
	After a few hours we came to a nice little creek where we took a break and cooled ourselves off.
	It was starting to get warm by lunch time, but we found a nice pine tree to provide shade for us during lunch.
	Because the purpose of this GeoTrek for some of the participants was to learn something about the geology of the San Gabriel Mountains, we stopped at numerous rock exposures to examine the rocks.
	The mountain on the skyline is Mount Gleason. We started today's hike on the far side of Mount Gleason and came around the right slope of the mountain.
	We made it to Mill Creek Summit Picnic Area in relatively good shape after our 11.8 mile hike for the day.