Hiking Icehouse Canyon

We’ve discovered great new trails—less than hour’s drive from home—in Icehouse Canyon, in the Angeles National Forest above Claremont on the road to Mt. Baldy. The canyon runs east-west between steep ridges, so the shadows keep the air frigid and snow frozen. The main canyon, about 4 miles from trailhead to saddle, is rocky drainage forested with oak, big cone spruce, pine, fir and cedar. However, other trails climb hillsides and side canyons and there are peaks to bag beyond the saddle.

The scenery has been a perfect place to experiment with panorama images taken with the Lumix FZ28 and automatically stitched together with the photomerge feature of Photoshop CS4.

Icehouse Canyon has a long history as a source of timber, gold and block ice for the growing towns below. A few cabins (privately owned) remain from the days of summer homes and mountain resorts, giving the walk a historical flavor that reaches back to the 1700s.

The trails can be crowded on the weekend. Close to the parking lot, local families bring their toddlers to sled in the snow. Farther up, Icehouse seems to be a favorite of the Korean-American hiking community, which turns out to be huge. One lone walker told me that it’s reminiscent of the popular trails around Seoul.

Gear notes

Icehouse in winter is tricky trekking without the right gear, but I’ve been really happy with the Evernew instep crampons I brought back from Tokyo last year. They are lighter than our sturdy CMI spikes and feature plastic, quick bindings that make them as easy to put on and off as the CMI’s are complicated. With a little rubber bubble to pop out accumulated debris, their shorter spikes are more comfortable wearing heel-less trail shoes walking on ice or dirt, though I miss the extra depth when on slushy snow.

In and out of the shadows, the temperature fluctuates wildly from the 30s to 50s, but I’ve been warm and cozy in by Montbell UL Inner Parka over my Columbia Klamath Range II Half Zip microfleece, which weigh only about 8oz each.