San Gabriel Mountains, First Ascent

This happens to me a lot: I spend the afternoon indecisively trying to figure out what would be the best use of my time, thus not really doing anything, thus wasting the time I'm trying to make the best use of.  So today, after a lot of unnecessary sturm and drang, I finally realized it was a beautiful Saturday in Los Angeles and I should enjoy the outdoors.  I headed out for the San Gabriel Mountains, just north of LA.  I wound my way up the the encouragingly-named Angeles Crest Hwy, with my camera, binoculars, and Sibley guide in the passenger seat.  After feeling a bit bummed out for a few days, I'm excited!  I'm heading up, up, and away!

I arrive at a whole mess of orange cones, blockades, and flashing signs.  The highway is closed.  In fact, this whole section of the San Gabriel Mountains is inaccessible.  I assume there's a high fire danger, and as I turn my trusty little Prius around, I pout like a child.

Consolation prize: the Hahamongna Watershed.  No idea, but my trusty GPS tells me it's a sizeable green blotch a few miles away.  I quickly learn that this random spot is "the birthplace of disc golf," and I am duly revential in light of this impressive claim to fame.  Outside of the vast amount of land devoted specifically to frisbee golf playing, this is a pretty spot.  I'm reminded that I'm in the desert, where a watershed is, at least some of the time, actually the bottom of a huge sandy canyon.  But those are some beautiful mountains at the magic hour.  And that's as close to these mountains as it looks like I'm gonna get.