August Interlude: Windy Gap

 The Crystal Lake Recreation Area sits in a big bowl in the San Gabriel Mountains high above Azusa, with the rim of the bowl marked by high rocky peaks - Mount Islip, Mount Hawkins and South Mount Hawkins - and the ridges between and away from them. In a "low" spot, between Islip and Hawkins is Windy Gap, and through the gap is a place called Little Jimmy Trail Camp. For some reason I have a memory of Little Jimmy being a shake-down hike preceding the summer long term. I never did the hike to Little Jimmy back in those days (and after today, still have not), but in April 1975 I did do a twenty-mile shake-down hike called Big Cienega ahead of the Silver Knapsack long term. Whether than Big Cienega was the same Big Cienega that the Windy Gap trail passes, I have absolutely no idea - who knows how many Big Cienegas there are anyway?

Anyway...

I wasn't really planning on a second August Interlude, but I took the day off, and, well why not? You're not going to find me complaining about an extra day in the mountains. I would love to have bagged a peak or a pass, or at the very least a gap but Finn, while a good hiking companion kind of gets distracted by the sights and the scents, and getting a late start was more a hinderance than a help. Today's turn-around was close, but short of the Gap and, hence, I still have not been to Little Jimmy, nor the summit of Mount Islip, nor the site of the old fire lookout tower on South Hawkins. What I did not miss out on was the simple, or would it be complex, spectacle of the high country; between the late season wildflowers, the cool mountain air, the scents of pine, cedar and earth, a morning with Finn MacCumhail and Tamera, lunch with a couple of the Forest Services finest, an extra interlude was an opportunity not to be passed up.

It is the weekend again - get on out there and see what there is to see!

starting out

wood pile and a part of the long ridge running south from Mount Islip

Windy Gap Trail

red

Finn checking out the sign

Indian Paintbrush and the scars of fires past

upward tilting trail to Windy Gap

i'm not sure if this is one of the "bumps" John Robinson talks about being being on the ridge between Mount Hawkins and South Hawkins - both those officially named peaks (and the two unofficial "bumps") are named in honor of Nellie Hawkins, a waitress at the long gone Squirrel Inn who, between 1901 and 1907 as the story goes, charmed local miners, hunters, campers and every mountain man for miles around

way out there, beyond those distant ridges lies the city

the Windy Gap

most of the high country Rabbitbrush wasn't blooming, but here and there were clumps of yellow

the cafe and trading post

the old red barn (with a fresh coat of paint, it looks like)