Where to hike before Angeles Crest Highway gets slammed by El Niño

I miss the ease with which I used to hop into my car, gear and dog loaded, and head to the Mt. Waterman trailhead deep in Angeles National Forest for a day of serenity and adventure. It was one of my go-to happy places.

But the segment of Angeles Crest Highway to reach the trailhead has been closed since last December when heavy rain destroyed several sections of the roadway. I could technically reach the trail by taking the closed highway 3.8 miles on foot from the closure’s start to the trailhead, or the Pacific Crest Trail for part of the way. But as I said, I miss the ease of it all.

This winter, Southern California is expected to be pummeled by a “super” El Niño that could bring record-breaking amounts of rain — and maybe snow — to the region. I have been worried about whether storms will blast away the progress that construction crews have made repairing Angeles Crest Highway, a 66-mile stretch of California 2 through the San Gabriel Mountains, along with causing more damage.

In anticipation of further closures of California 2 in the San Gabriel Mountains, I have compiled a list of trails that would be most inaccessible should the roadway close. I hope you can use the list below to either hike trails you’ve never tried or haven’t visited in a while.

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First, let’s talk about the current state of California 2.

Over the last four years, the route has seen multiple months-long closures after storms blasted out massive chunks of roadway, leading to lengthy repairs.

Since January, the California Department of Transportation and its contractors have worked on three emergency projects on Angeles Crest Highway. The work stretches over nearly 30 miles and includes about 40 places identified as needing to be repaired. The projects are noted below by postmile value, a numerical identifier used by state and federal officials to identify precise locations on a specific route:

Crews have and will continue installing K-rail barriers around washed-out shoulders and road; repairing eroded slopes and embankments under the road; reconstructing shoulders and slopes to their “original design grades,” which is a feat of engineering I’m personally impressed by; and installing erosion control measures to better ensure a future storm does not cause the exact same issues that prompted previous repairs, according to a Caltrans fact sheet of the project.

Caltrans spokesperson Eric Menjivar said in an email Tuesday that at least some of the repairs are on hold as the agency obtains supplemental funding through an internal review process to finish the repairs.

Contractors have continued work to prep the roadway for El Niño, he said, including slope erosion control work.

An excavator works to repair a segment of Angeles Crest Highway. (Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times) In terms of the timing of when we will start to see rainfall, it could be as early as this month.

“Forecasters say there’s a 75% chance this latest El Niño — a climate pattern characterized by warmer ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific — will be stronger than any other since 1950,” Times staff writer Iris Kwok wrote. “There is a 98% chance that El Niño will be ‘very strong’ for the three-month period ending in December, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.”

That’s why I wanted to dig into which trails would be most affected by a California 2 closure. Below, I’ve listed trails that are primarily accessed using a trailhead off the route, while also noting how hikers might still reach a peak or vantage point using another option.

I am not suggesting where damage will or won’t occur, but rather encouraging you to get out on these trails soon — especially if they’ve been on your list for a while — while it remains easy enough to drive to their trailheads. Additionally, we cannot predict how our trails will fare during a significant El Niño winter.

A sweeping view of Angeles Crest Highway and the San Gabriel Mountains from the Hoyt Mountain trail. (Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times) Here are trails primarily accessed off California 2:

I found a few hikes I’ve never done thanks to this week’s Wild. I hope it serves a similar purpose for you. Let me know if you get out there and where you go! If you received this newsletter as an email, you can simply reply, and your messages come right to me. See you out there!

3 things to do Skaters meander through Little Tokyo during a previous CicLAvia event. (CicLAvia Los Angeles) 1. Dilly-dally through downtown L.A.CicLAvia will host a 6.5-mile open streets event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday via a route that connects Echo Park, downtown L.A., Chinatown, Little Tokyo, the Arts District and Boyle Heights. Guests are welcome to walk, bike or use other people-powered mobility devices to traverse the route. See rules for e-bikes. Learn more at ciclavia.org.

2. Craft local clay in L.A.Clay artist Evelyn Hernández will host from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday a hike through Griffith Park and teach participants along the way to identify clay and earthen pigments in their natural habitat. Attendees will also create a ceramic piece using locally processed clay. Tickets are $48.05 to $63.63 based on your economic ability to pay. Register at events.humanitix.com.

3. Haunt the hillsides near Atwater VillageDance Quest will host a Halloween-themed silent disco from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday through Griffith Park. Attendees will dance along a 1.5-mile loop trail while wearing headphones with a curated playlist. Halloween costumes and flair welcomed and encouraged. Suggested donation of $15 to $25. Register at eventbrite.com.

The must-read George Jensen records audio of geese and ducks during a Los Angeles Field Recording meetup at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times) One of the best parts of hiking is the unexpected sounds that nature provides, from the crunch of your boots on the sandy soil to the surprisingly thunderous sounds a covey of quail makes as it leaves a shrub (which has maybe scared a certain outdoors journalist more than once). And because L.A. has a club for truly everyone, there’s now a place nature sound lovers can go to really appreciate what they find outdoors, the Los Angeles Field Recording Club. “I feel like now everything’s so … doctored. But when you’re recording, this is what’s really happening. You’re hearing real sound. You’re engaged with the world in a real way,” said George Jensen, founder of the Los Angeles Field Recording Club.

P.S.Everyone is looking for a way to escape this heat wave, including the black bears of the San Gabriel Mountains. Wildlife photographer Robert Martinez shared a video this week of one of our ursine neighbors taking a dip into cool water deep in Angeles National Forest. The bear even takes time to exfoliate, using what appears to be a concrete barrier to scratch its back. Now that’s self-care!

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Jaclyn Cosgrove covers the (great!) outdoors at the Los Angeles Times. They started at The Times in 2017 and have written about wildfires, culture, protests, crime and county government. In 2022, they managed For Your Mind, a yearlong mental health project. Cosgrove is originally from rural Oklahoma and is a proud Oklahoma State University graduate.