In The Angeles National Forest

After, the fires; after the rains; after the mudslides, I finally got into the Angeles National Forest to see some of the damage. I had wanted to drive up Angeles Crest Highway to the paved, gated route down to the Gabrieleno National Recreation Trail at Gould Mesa. This trail is one of my favorites for, among other reasons, it's a long, scenic route that is just above the city. It wasn't my plan to walk the entire route, but I had hoped to walk down to the trail junction to get an idea of how bad things were.
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Unfortunately, the Crest Highway is still closed, so I had to turn around and try Big Tujunga Canyon Road. As I drove into the San Gabriel Mountains, it was clear that from the Sunland/Tujunga area to the Angeles Forest Highway, it's pretty much a complete loss. The canyon sides have burnt down to bare soil, and while the chaparral is growing back, it will probably be a couple of years before things look green and healthy. There are signs all along the road noting that the area is closed to all activities because of fire damage, though the Condor Peak Trail looks like it's still passable, and there was no sign prohibiting its use at the trail head.
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At the Forest Highway junction, I turned right, and headed for the Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road. The Hidden Springs store is gone. Off of Upper Big Tujunga, I took the narrow paved route towards Camp Colby, a church property. I wanted to see if the trail that goes up the back side of Strawberry Peak was still open. It was signed as closed, but there were two guys in the parking lot and I asked them if they had been on the trail. "Yes," they told me, "And it's not too bad." I asked if they had gone as high as the trail junction going to the peak, but they had not gone that far. There is a lot of fire damage along the creek.
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I then went as far as the Crest Highway. Everything on either side of the road was burned. The chaparral will grow back soon, but the trees will probably not return in my lifetime. The Crest Highway was open in either direction from the Upper Big Tujunga Road junction. There were signs stating that Newcombe's Ranch was open, so it must have come through the fires, if not unharmed, at least in good enough shape to serve food. Looking up the road, I could see that there were areas where the trees were untouched by the fires, and patches that had been burned out. I drove back towards the city as far as the Redbox Ranger Station. It's still in tact, and looking down the Arroyo Seco, things didn't look too bad. The slopes of Mount Wilson don't appear to have been burnt at all. The Redbox Trail is signed, closed, but the trail down to Switzers, was not signed at all.
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I turned around and retraced my route to the Forest Highway and headed toward Mill Creek Summit. Everything along the creek is burned out, including the Monte Cristo Campground. At Mill Creek Summit, the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the road. There were no signs barring entry. I headed down to Aliso Canyon Road, and didn't return to an area unburnt, until I was closing in on the backside of Acton.
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To see my blog on hiking and biking, including a description, with pictures, of a hike from Dawson saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell go to http://www.selfpropelled-wjy.blogspot.com/