teotwaki
Excelsior!
My friend Alan (Terawanderer) and I went on the first hike together to check out the trail system up there as well as to visit the fire lookout tower.
More pictures and the full report here: http://suntothenorth.blogspot.com/2016/06/hike-to-tahquitz-peak-fire-lookout.html
Tahquitz Peak Lookout at its elevation of 8,846 feet is the highest in the San Bernardino National Forest. It is also the forest’s longest continuously operated station,
serving some 77 years. This is my zoom lens shot of the lookout nestled on the high peak.
Alan and I started our Saturday June 25th hike by picking up a permit at the ranger station in town and were on the trail by 8:30 AM.
A lot of the terrain is similar to the Sierras.
If you go straight to the lookout it is roughly 4.5 miles and a 2600' elevation gain from the trailhead.
Based on GPS readings Alan and believe that the USFS handout map seriously underreports the trail mileages by 10% or more. What the map would claim is
9.8 miles we recorded as 10.8 miles.
Alan and I met a nice volunteer named Carol who gave us the grand tour of the tower. Here she is demonstrating the Osborne Fire Finder device.
The sighting devices were created by William "W.B." Osborne, a USFS employee and have been in service since 1915. The system is composed of a topo map of the area on a horizontal table with a circular rim graduated in degrees. Two sighting apertures are mounted above the map on opposite sides of the ring and slide around the arc.
On Monday I went back in the afternoon to hike the trail again with some minor variations for a total of 10.98 miles. The first 2.5 miles up the Devil's Slide trail gains 1600' and the last 1.9 miles to the lookout gains 1,000'. The total time I spent actually moving was just 4 hours because I jogged any downhill sections that I could and made up for time I spent talking to folks that I met on the trail. In previous years I have hiked to San Jacinto so it was fun to explore some new areas at 8,000'. When I receive Alan's pictures I'll post some up.
More pictures and the full report here: http://suntothenorth.blogspot.com/2016/06/hike-to-tahquitz-peak-fire-lookout.html
Tahquitz Peak Lookout at its elevation of 8,846 feet is the highest in the San Bernardino National Forest. It is also the forest’s longest continuously operated station,
serving some 77 years. This is my zoom lens shot of the lookout nestled on the high peak.
Alan and I started our Saturday June 25th hike by picking up a permit at the ranger station in town and were on the trail by 8:30 AM.
A lot of the terrain is similar to the Sierras.
If you go straight to the lookout it is roughly 4.5 miles and a 2600' elevation gain from the trailhead.
Based on GPS readings Alan and believe that the USFS handout map seriously underreports the trail mileages by 10% or more. What the map would claim is
9.8 miles we recorded as 10.8 miles.
Alan and I met a nice volunteer named Carol who gave us the grand tour of the tower. Here she is demonstrating the Osborne Fire Finder device.
The sighting devices were created by William "W.B." Osborne, a USFS employee and have been in service since 1915. The system is composed of a topo map of the area on a horizontal table with a circular rim graduated in degrees. Two sighting apertures are mounted above the map on opposite sides of the ring and slide around the arc.
On Monday I went back in the afternoon to hike the trail again with some minor variations for a total of 10.98 miles. The first 2.5 miles up the Devil's Slide trail gains 1600' and the last 1.9 miles to the lookout gains 1,000'. The total time I spent actually moving was just 4 hours because I jogged any downhill sections that I could and made up for time I spent talking to folks that I met on the trail. In previous years I have hiked to San Jacinto so it was fun to explore some new areas at 8,000'. When I receive Alan's pictures I'll post some up.