By Jeff Johnson, story and photos
Twin Peaks is the prominent mountain in the heart of the San Gabriels surrounded by Mt. Waterman on the north and, on the west, south and east sides, by various tributaries of the West Fork of the San Gabriel River. Though you can see Twin Peaks from many places in the San Gabriels, it is not a short and simple jaunt to get there. The only sensible way there is to hike over or around Mt. Waterman, then drop down to the saddle between Waterman and Twin Peaks, then scramble up from the saddle on a “trail” to the peaks. The distance between the eastern and western peaks is about 0.6 mile.
On the summit of the eastern peak of Twin Peaks.
The last time I was at Twin Peaks was probably 20 years ago when I was a little spryer than I feel today. I remembered these things: a scramble up from the saddle to the peaks on no trail at all; passing Lilium parryi (lemon lilies) on the trail to Twin Peaks; records from the 1960s in the register on the western peak. Dora did this hike very recently and reported that today there is a trail all the way to Twin Peaks from the saddle. So, feeling that I could probably still make it, I joined the GLS group going there on July 11.
We started at Buckhorn, familiar to most as the start point for most hikes up Waterman. At the familiar junction about two thirds of the way to the summit of Waterman, where we turn right to go to the summit, we turned left instead and went down the Waterman Trail toward Chilao. After dropping down long enough that we were already dreading the climb back up again on the return, we came to the another trail junction, where we turned left toward the saddle between Waterman and Twin Peaks. And continued dropping.
We passed a rivulet that even in this drought year had some running water and, yes!, some lemon lilies. But we were a couple weeks too early to see them in bloom.
The eastern peak of Twin Peaks seen from the western peak, with higher peaks of the eastern San Gabriels in the distance.
After reaching the saddle between Waterman and Twin Peaks, and passing the “heliport” on the saddle, we started up toward Twin Peaks. I can report that there is a trail, but we didn’t find that trail until we were most of the way up.
At the eastern peak, the higher of the two, we had our lunch, checked the time, then headed for the western peak. As the afternoon got later and we were still not there, we decided 30 more minutes then we head back regardless so we can be sure to be down in daylight. But in 20 minutes, we were there.
But where is that register? And then we saw it—the old red-painted-can kind of register, stuck way up on top of a boulder. Can we get there? Rock climbing at this late hour? As tired as we are? That we would be foolish, we decided. So we left without seeing what’s in the register today.
Co-leader Kyla deciding that , no, trying to reach that register can on top of that boulder is not worth the risk right now.
On the return, the climb back up the south face of Waterman was as exhausting as expected. Dora and Ted, however, who’d been backpacking recently, didn’t seem to have any trouble. When we did all make it back to the cars safely and in daylight, we declared victory and declared that we probably don’t need to do that hike again until we are in much better shape.
