Antimony Peak W6/SC-008

July is here and the weather is heating up.  I have been looking at hiking to Antimony Peak for well over a year.  My window to do the hike was closing, as this is a hike you do not want to do in ho weather.  It was easy drive from the Crescenta Valley, arriving at the parking spot about an hour and a half from my house.  The cutoff is a dirt road (Forest Road 9N22) which you follow for about four miles.  About a mile up the road, you arrive at a "T" intersection.  Go to the left and follow the road to the end.  I had no problem on the dirt road with my 2 WD Toyota.  The dirt road is marked in red on the below Google Earth picture.

    

The hike is about 5 miles round trip.  I recommend doing this hike in cool weather and being in fairly good shape.  The 1.25 miles is mostly shaded as you walk below trees, dropping about 700 feet.  you reach a saddle and then climb up nearly 900 feet over a series of switchbacks to the peak.  The switchbacks have no relief from the sun, but offer nice views.

  
After parking, walk to the end of the parking area and follow the old road past a fence, which quickly turns into a trail.  The trail is in relatively good shape.

As I continued down the trail, I could see Antimony Peak approaching.

I reached the saddle and it gave me a good look of the switchbacks and the climb I had ahead of me.

The switchbacks were slow going at the beginning due to all the rocks on the trail.

At one point, I saw what looked like mountain lion tracks.  If so, it looks like he had a tasty meal.