Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Training

Hello
I live in the San Fernando valley and I am knew to hiking. Does anyone know what trails I should start with to train? I am familiar with mt Wilson mt baldy etc but I'm not ready for those yet

Thank you

Hi there,

There are a few good trails in Santa Clarita Valley: Placerita, Whites Canyon, Towsley Canyon, etc. to name a few. They aren't too far from SFV.

I live in Studio City, and there are a surprising number of options.

Here is a start. Great hikes. I remember using guidebooks for the area when I moved there:

http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/hiking-los-angeles-las-best-trails

I live in Santa Clarita and did a lot of my early training in Towsley Canyon. I did not know it at the time but the trail around Towsley is pretty good practice for Whitney type trails. Although Whitney is rockier.

Later I hiked Towsley through to Mentryville which is even more like Whitney terrain wise.

There are lots of hikes in the Hollywood Hills of course.

When you want to hike at altitute you're going to have to get in your car however. Mt. Pinos is good.

I also did a lot of stairs when training and more than anything on Whitney I was grateful for all the stairs I had climbed. Without the stair practice Whitney would have burned me out before the summit I think.

I trained for hikes in my building stairwell when I was in Chicago.

Here are some suggestions, all in the San Gabriel Valley but not too far from the SFV:

1) Cherry Canyon in La Canada. There are three main trailheads, in a residential neighborhood, and a variety of connecting trails including fire roads and single tracks. There's a radio tower from which there are great views of Los Angeles out to the ocean on one side, and the San Gabriel mountains on the other. Uncrowded, seems like mostly La Canada locals walking their dogs, etc. There is some mountain bike traffic.

2) Echo Mountain in Altadena. This is kind of a classic hike, about 5 and a half miles round trip, with a steady, switchbacking ascent. Not much shade so it's a good morning option. Can be very crowded especially on weekend mornings. At the top there are ruins from an old mountain resort which are pretty cool to explore. For a beginning this would be kind of a tough hike but it's doable. Do this one a few times and note the improvements in your fitness.

3) Jones Peak in Sierra Madre. Trailhead is at Bailey Canyon. This one is simlar to Echo Mountain in terms of length and steepness, but it's less crowded.

Oh, forgot to mention, Griffith Park has many, many miles of trails. Took me a while to hike them all.

And for extra motivation, there are the Sierra Club hikes on Tu, W, Th, all year round. 7-9 in the evening, rain or shine. You learn night hiking, as well as the conditioning. Broken down into 6 levels of effort, so you can go up as you get more fit.

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/griffith/location.asp

Plus, the Sierra Club has much longer dayhikes that happen almost every day. They are led, with a sweep, by very experienced hikers.
I believe the Angeles Chapter has over 3,000 such hikes a year.

And you don't need to be a member to participate in dayhikes.
My favorite of all time was the 15 mile "Lemming Hike"-- from the SF Valley to the ocean.

http://angeles2.sierraclub.org/activities

Training for Whitney you need some gain. I live in SCV and work in Simi, here are a couple great hikes.

1: The Beast: 9.8 mi RT with 2400' elevation gain. Take the 14 North into SCV and exit at Newhall Ave, turn right and park in the park and ride. Looking to the east you'll see a hill with a fire road heading up. Take the fire road all the way to the Radio Antennae (Los Pinetos Station #1) you see from the base. There are a few forks int he road, but the general rule is "keep going up". Once you top out the divide you can get some pretty cool views of SFV. On one occasion I could see all the way out to the sea past Santa Monica.

2: Rocky Peak via Hummingbird Trail: 8.6 miles RT and 2100' of elev gain. You take the 118 over Santa Susana Pass into Simi Valley and take the first exit onto Kuehner. Just north of the freeway park in one of several pullouts alongside the road. Cut east across the path leading across the dirt lot until the trail becomes more distinct after crossing a dry creekbed. Hang a left once the trail dead ends onto Rocky Peak Road (2.7 miles in). Follow Rocky Peak Road another 2 mi until you appear to be near the top (i.e. you can't see any higher spot a reasonable distance to the north) and you will encounter a short cutoff to the east which will lead you to the summit proper.

For Mt. Whitney the best training areas are San Antonio Canyon and the San Gorgonio Wilderness. They the best hikes with the right gain but not the right elevation.

As Ken said pick up a guide book...and, join a few meetup groups and scope out the San Gabriels, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto message boards.

Lastly, do not forget to add higher Sierra trip before Mt. Whitney.