[singlepic id=43 w=320 h=240 float=left]The past Saturday was a hot summer day in east LA area. We planned to hike up to Ice House Saddle before noon to avoid the heat.
It was pretty warm there on the trail but fortunately many trees gave us a nice shade here and there. A beautiful creek was running along at the beginning of the trail. Even in July there was a good amount of water, which added a high light to the hike. Maybe because of the creek, it was quite popular. On the way going up we met many hikers, especially asian hiker groups.
The trail was 7 miles long, 2300 feet escalation. After half way, we found that the trail started getting very steep, and the steepness almost lasted till the saddle. The saddle was a nice rest area with many trees and cooler wind. Several signs showed that it’s also a place that connects to trails to other famous peaks nearby, such as 3T (Timber, Telegraph, Thunder), Cucamonga peak, Mt Baldy, etc.
Because of the steep part, my legs got pretty tired on the way back. But it was a great work out. I am sure my legs got much stronger after this hike.
On the picture, you can see Mt Baldy, where we hiked up last year, clearly from half way to the saddle.

Will Roger’s park is a beautiful park, we’ve been there many times, but this was the first time we hiked it through to the Backbone Trail.
Hard to believe it’s in July. We got a really foggy, cool morning, for a while it was raining a little bit. So even there’s no much shade, it was a very comfortable day for hiking. Many wild flowers are still waiting for us on the side of the well maintened trail. The trail eventually turned narrow and with a lot high grasses on the side when our GPS showing it’s almost 3 miles away from our car. We turned around after it reached 3 miles. The fog got thinner on the way back, so we could see the coast line clearly.
It is a nice hiking trail if you don’t want to drive far.

[singlepic id=33 w=320 h=240 float=left]We hiked in Horseshoe Meadows on Saturday, which is in Southern Sierra, California.
Stayed in Lone Pine for a really hot Friday night (95F), I was glad to get some fresh air in the mountains. The car drove up a zig-zag shaped road from 3000ft to 10000ft and we got to the parking lot. It was 60F there, which was much cooler than Lone Pine. There were already some people and cars there, some looked like they stayed overnight in the camping ground.
The meadow was beautiful with clear creeks. Golden trout are protected here. Leaving the peaceful meadow behind, we walked through a very steep part covered by forest formed by pines. I had to walk extremely slow because the high altitude. When getting close to the peak, I got some headache but not so bad. It was cold up there, we still saw some snow patches. Finally we got up to the Trail peak, 11605ft. The big mountains with snow close by gave a great view. You feel like they are saying “we are the greater mountains”.
The round trip was 7.5 mile and 2000ft elevation up according to our GPS.