On Sunday, I took a leg-busting trip with Team WWED up the firebreak ascent to Mount Wilson I accidentally hiked a few years back to train for a late summer Mount Whitney trip.

The weather and company were great, and the views were unbelievable. In all my years of hiking in the area, I have never seen such tremendous visibility – I could very clearly make out Catalina, the Channel Islands and even Boney Ridge to the east, while seeing for miles to the south, too.

Dozens of different types of wildflowers were on display, including some small colonies of California poppies that I really wasn’t expecting to see.

And of course, it was on the day I went “light hiking” with no camera or GPS stuff. So all I have to show for it is this blurry iPhone shot of some of the burned areas near Bear Canyon:

click for full view

Nice weather, bad burns. I have a feeling some of those areas are going to be closed for a long, long time.

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by Casey Schreiner

Founder and Editor of Modern Hiker, Author of "Day Hiking Los Angeles." "Discovering Griffith Park," and "Cloud Spotting." Walking Meditator, Native Plant Enthusiast.