Pacific Crest Trail, San Gabriel Mountains

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Table of Contents

Introduction and Overview
Hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail
Print References
Other Web Information

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Introduction and Overview

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) traverses the San Gabriel Mountains from Cajon Pass on the east to Liebre Mountain on the northwest. In the 171.3 miles between Cajon Pass and SR138, the trail traverses the Blue Ridge, Mt. Baden-Powell, Throop Peak, Mt. Hawkins, Islip Saddle, Cooper Canyon, Cloudburst Summit, Three Points, Pacifico Mountain, Mill Creek Summit, Mount Gleason, Vasquez Rocks, and Sawmill Mountain.

For the most part, the PCT in this area stays close to the drainage divide between streams draining to the Pacific and those draining elsewhere. The exceptions are at:

• Cajon Pass, where the drainage divide is no longer even in the mountains due to Cajon Creek breaking through to the other side of the mountains (Cajon Summit is in the alluvial bajada in the Mojave Desert at a location essentially as far from the mountains as are downtown Pasadena and Arcadia);
• The Santa Clara River, where the drainage divide is considerably upstream; and
• North of Liebre Mountain, where the trail heads to the Mojave Desert because the Tejon Ranch refused to allow the PCT to traverse most of the true Crest within their property.

Parts of the PCT are pre-existing trails that are indexed separately in the Hikes by Region, and parts were newly built that appear only in PCT guidebooks.

Using the parlance of the PCT, section D (I-15 to Agua Dulce) and a portion of Section E (Agua Dulce to Hwy 58; Agua Dulce to SR138 is in the SGM) of the PCT are in the San Gabriel Mountains. (See The Pacific Crest Trail: Volume 1: California)

This page is just a beginning for PCT information, created now primarily to hold links to the PCT as we find them.

The PCT essentially started and finished in the SGM area:

• Clinton C. Clarke of Pasadena was the father of the PCT. He proposed the idea for the PCT in the 1930s, served as President of the PCT System Conference for 25 years, and published a guide to the PCT sketching its route in January 1935.
• The last section of the PCT, the route avoiding the crest in Tejon Ranch, was built in and just north of the SGM. The Golden Spike ceremony marking the completion was held in Soledad Canyon on 6/5/1993, 25 years after Congress authorized the Trail. The ceremony was not held in the Tejon Ranch area because it is closed to the public, and the Soledad Canyon site was more accessible to Southern California.

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Hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail

• Roy Randall's 1. Horse Trail to Liebre Mountain (5759'), June 20, 1998
• Russell Bell's San Gabriel Crest Trail

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Print References

• The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California, Schaffer et al., Wilderness Press, 1995.
  This book is the definitive guide to the PCT in California, giving detailed topo maps, the scenery, geology, water supply and hazards.

• Pacific Crest Trail Data Book, Benedict "Gentle Ben" Go, Pacific Crest Trail Association, 1997.
  A compilation of distances between landmarks, facilities, and other features on the Trail.

• Day Hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail: California, George and Patricia Semb, Wilderness Press, 2000.
  A guide for how to do the entire PCT within the SGM as 19 day hikes. This book assumes you have Schaffer's guide, and concentrates on the logistics of doing the PCT as a series of day hikes.

• Beyond Backpacking Ray Jardine's Guide to Lightweight Hiking, a major upgrade to The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook.

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Other Web Information

• Pacific Crest Trail Association
  • Southern California Overview
  • Trail conditions
  • Large map of entire trail (470 kB)
  • PCTA secures funds for protection of trail in Sierra Pelona Valley

• Chris McCarthy's PCT Maps and Profiles
  • Map of California PCT (211 kB)
  • Map Showing Guidebook Sections (99 kB)
  • Elevation Profiles: Sections E and F

• Craig Giffen's PCT Planning Program (helps choose resupply stations, hiking times based on terrain, etc.)

• Pacific Crest Trail Association: Southern California's Regional Page by Pete Fish, PCTA So. Calif. Regional Trail Coordinator. (Unfortunately, the page was last updated in January 1999.)

• Digital Desert's Pacific Crest Trail Index of a pictorial tour from Cajon Pass to Aliso Springs

• Journal Selections
  • Dave and Shirley McCunn's Week 3: Cajon Pass to Little Jimmy Camp (7-10 June, 1981)
  • Dave and Shirley McCunn's Week 4: Little Jimmy Camp to Acton (11-14 June, 1981)
  • George Spearing's Dances With Marmots (20 April - 17 September 1990)
  • Bob's Journal (13-23 May 1997)
  • Charlotte's Pacific Crest Trail Home Page, May (8-15 May 1999)
  • Henry's Pacific Crest Trail Hike: Big Bear City to Wrightwood (10-14 May 1999)
  • Henry's Pacific Crest Trail Hike: Wrightwood to Agua Dulce (16-19 May 1999)
  • Troubadour's 1999 Southern California Journal (20-30 May 1999)
  • Tom Potochny's 5/24- 5/30 Goodbye LA (25-30 May 1999)
  • Nocona's 2000 Journal (25 May - 7 June 2000)

• Every year scores of weary hikers stop at The Historic Three Points Roadhouse

• Pacific Crest Trail Repeater Guide How to hit an amateur radio repeater from the trail

• The History of the Pacific Crest Trail

Go to Hikes in the SGM

Copyright © 2000-2003 by Tom Chester and Jane Strong.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to us at this source:
http://tchester.org/sgm/trails/pct.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester | Jane Strong
Updated 19 February 2003.