Josephine Peak, Strawberry Peak, Mount Lawlor, Barley Flats
10 March 1990
By: Joe Young
Leaders: Stag Brown, Joe Young
Four peaks for the price of five!
Six early bird hikers met for breakfast at Lloyds of La Cañada at 6:00am, and
these were joined by five more at 7:00 for the drive to Clear Creek Ranger
Station at the intersection of the Angeles Crest Highway and the Angeles Forest
Highway. There was a short wait as Bobcat Thompson and Jim (Shamus) Fleming
shuttled their vehicles to Red Box, where we would be ending the hike. The
weather this day was not the best as temperatures were cool and skies were
generally overcast with lowering ceilings and a light breeze. However, at no
time did it rain on us.
We started hiking shortly before 8:00am with Stag leading a mostly cross country
route generally up the south face of Josephine, occasionally intersecting the
road, then ascending by the southeast ridge leading to the summit. This "Stag
route" was followed to attain Josephine by a pathfinder non-traditional route.
(The pathfinder concept was practically made for Stag routes.) We arrived at the
summit shortly before 10am, and after signing in left for Strawberry which we
climbed from the west via the rock scramble ridge. We arrived at the summit of
the Big Berry at 11:45am and lunched for about a half hour. We enjoyed the
oranges and cashew nuts shared by Stag and Nami.
Stag led us down to the Strawberry/Lawlor saddle, where we arrived at
approximately 1:00pm. I then led a swift ascent of Lawlor via the west ridge
arriving at 1:20. This was a fast group as the first arrived at the summit in 18
minutes (2300' per hour ascent rate) and the last in 25 minutes (1700' per hour
ascent rate). After a brief stay on the summit, I led the group down the east
ridge to Barley Flats, arriving at about 2:20pm. The clouds had descended on us
to such an extent that we could not see the water reservoir near the high point
of Barley until we were within a hundred yards of it. At 2:40 we began the
pathfinder ascent up the east ridge to the summit of Lawlor, the first arriving
at about 3:20pm. Three people had checked out at Barley Flats and took the
unmaintained and reportedly badly deteriorated dirt road back to Red Box. After
a short stay on Lawlor we followed Stag down the south face of Lawlor, looking
for the Bridget 0'Sullivan commemorative yucca as we approached Red Box (Bridget
had injured her hand here a couple of months earlier). We arrived at Red Box at
approximately 4:30pm. We estimated our day had entailed 4000' of gain and
fifteen miles.
After the short shuttle back to Clear Creek, we drove back to La Cañada and a
number of us reconvened at Pepe's Mexican restaurant for some post hike revelry
and warming up.
Thanks to Stag for his customary creative leadership.
