RR: AT (Acton Trail) to the Pass!

I've looked at maps of this a few times. There must be better satellite images on google now because it is much easier to follow the old trail/road alignment. I can see it now well enough to draw it in all the way up to the road. What I drew in using satellite generally follows an old trail you can see on the topo as well.

On the map below, the line to the right would be the better alignment to follow based on elevation profile. It gets a bit steep toward the top but there would be no need to ride on the SOT to access it. It tops out at the road at around 5,500ft. The other way along the ridgeline is much steeper, climbing about 1300ft in 1.5mi at the end and topping out at 6,500ft. I don't think it would be a good climbing route, though it would be more out of sight being off the main road.

Is the gate often open on the main Mt Gleason road? I've only been up there a couple times but each time it was locked at Mill Creek summit.

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evdog said:
I've looked at maps of this a few times. There must be better satellite images on google now because it is much easier to follow the old trail/road alignment. I can see it now well enough to draw it in all the way up to the road. What I drew in using satellite generally follows an old trail you can see on the topo as well.

On the map below, the line to the right would be the better alignment to follow based on elevation profile. It gets a bit steep toward the top but there would be no need to ride on the SOT to access it. It tops out at the road at around 5,500ft. The other way along the ridgeline is much steeper, climbing about 1300ft in 1.5mi at the end and topping out at 6,500ft. I don't think it would be a good climbing route, though it would be more out of sight being off the main road.

Is the gate often open on the main Mt Gleason road? I've only been up there a couple times but each time it was locked at Mill Creek summit.

View attachment 35453
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The only map I've found that gives a name to the old road on the eastern route is Bing, which labels it Messenger Electronic Site.
MES.jpg


I figured it's about 1.5 miles, down 1000' and up 500' to get to the AT pass. I went exploring on Sunday, and found the old road, but it became totally impassable about 30' in due to overgrowth. Looks like there is still some solid 5' wide tread under the brush. Sucks it dips down into a canyon, but seems like it's safest way of connecting to the pavement.

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View from 3N17

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On the SOT, looking down towards the pass

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At the point of overgrowth, looking back up towards 3N17

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At the point of overgrowth, looking North-West

Anyone down to try the firebreak ridgeline run down from the top of Mt Gleason with me?
 
burt said:
The only map I've found that gives a name to the old road on the eastern route is Bing, which labels it Messenger Electronic Site.
View attachment 35661

I figured it's about 1.5 miles, down 1000' and up 500' to get to the AT pass. I went exploring on Sunday, and found the old road, but it became totally impassable about 30' in due to overgrowth. Looks like there is still some solid 5' wide tread under the brush. Sucks it dips down into a canyon, but seems like it's safest way of connecting to the pavement.

View attachment 35662
View from 3N17

View attachment 35663
On the SOT, looking down towards the pass

View attachment 35664
At the point of overgrowth, looking back up towards 3N17

View attachment 35665
At the point of overgrowth, looking North-West

Anyone down to try the firebreak ridgeline run down from the top of Mt Gleason with me?
Click to expand...
I got a pair of machetes for bushwhacking :sneaky:
 
burt said:
The only map I've found that gives a name to the old road on the eastern route is Bing, which labels it Messenger Electronic Site.
View attachment 35661

I figured it's about 1.5 miles, down 1000' and up 500' to get to the AT pass. I went exploring on Sunday, and found the old road, but it became totally impassable about 30' in due to overgrowth. Looks like there is still some solid 5' wide tread under the brush. Sucks it dips down into a canyon, but seems like it's safest way of connecting to the pavement.

View attachment 35662
View from 3N17

View attachment 35663
On the SOT, looking down towards the pass

View attachment 35664
At the point of overgrowth, looking back up towards 3N17

View attachment 35665
At the point of overgrowth, looking North-West

Anyone down to try the firebreak ridgeline run down from the top of Mt Gleason with me?
Click to expand...
I'm in. Just need to find a day of the week we can get together on. :thumbsup:
 
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hill^billy said:
Hey Burt, what route did you go to get up there? Amazing the gate on Angelus Forest Hwy has never been open since the fire.
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Same question. Did you ride your bike in from Angeles Forest Hwy? If so, how far is it to the Messenger Electric Site? I'd love to hook up my Yak trailer to my bike and haul in my gas hedge trimmer and start clearing that trail from the top! Looks like the same route evdog showed on his map.
 
burt said:
I went up Moody Truck Trail. Gates are indeed closed. To get to the Messenger Road however, you want to skip the 1000' ascent to Gleason by going up the Bear Trap Canyon Road to the East.

GPX attached. Go get some!

[GPX=35732;10]GPX Viewer[/GPX]
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That’s what I thought, moody, not a bad climb.
 
Tom the Bomb said:
Didn't you hear? He crashed on Pinos and broke his collar bone a few months ago. I see he has been back on the bike recently. I believe he is healed. Hopefully.
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scan said:
Look him up on Strava and you'll see how long he's been riding since the injury. Surprised you didn't know!
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Guys! This is sarcasm... He’s off riding a gravel bike or something... I just miss him.
 
Mikie said:
Yup!
We posted up a Trailhead, we showed up, and we rode!
I asked @Voodoo Tom what we should do on Saturday and he suggested AT. I thought, that's a good call!
So I posted a ride invite and @scottay jumped all over it.

We usually meet at the Baseball Diamond south of Acton off Crown Valley Road. We did again today.
Just as the three of us were heading out on our bikes, we hear a honk honk and look back to see another pickup pull in next to our vehicles. It was @UPSed ! He texted me but I had turned my phone off.
So I guess posting ride invites DOES work!

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You may notice that the elevation profile for AT has changed. We actually road (pushed our bikes some) to the summit pass! In all my years of riding AT I had never rode that far up. The trail has been buried for well over a decade under mass wasting and brush overgrowth and there are a couple guys to include @hillbilly and @Maddog determined to connect the dots with the top of Mount Gleason. Well, it may have happened!

There are plenty of reports here on imtbtrails related to AT. For years we have been calling it the sleeper trail. Some have been pissed that I post up ride reports or video's as I have in the past revealing AT.

If I told you that AT is ever bit as good as Golden Eagle but in a completely different way... Would you show up to experience it?

Well...? I'm here to say... it's an all time classic and an epic ride. It has it all. All singletrack, exposure, technical chunk, fast and flowy, super big climb, windy twisty switchbacks, and yes... hike-a-bikes! Amazing views, thorough work out and has a sweet finish ins some chunk on the Death Chute and more! In some cases it may be the most work out for a now 21 mile ride you get in.

So we headed out. I thought I was doing okay, but due to some medical crap I have not been sleeping, been irritable, nauseous, and in some pain and I ended up not my chipper self. I was not grumpy, just not feeling spry. So I cruised the whole day until my barn sour self (I threw that in for @horsebikerider :) )saw the light at the end of the tunnel, downed the remainder of my Tailwind and drop what little hammer I had for the end of the ride.

Amazing... despite all the flash flooding in the Acton area last winter the trail was in great shape. A lot of loose and sandy corners which kept you on your game, but not a lot of damage. When we got to the big climb, I finally let the boys go by and I was going to get in what I could and did not think I was going to summit.

We climbed and climbed and climbed. All day my Garmin said we had a total of 522 feet of elevation gain but when I uploaded it, it came out about right. The guys got well out of sight and I thought several times of just pulling off and waiting for them to fly back down, but @rossage 's Mind Game post kept popping in my head. I HAD to finish.

As I persisted I often caught voices so I knew I was in reach. When I finally crested the Pass... a place I have NEVER been, there was Voodoo smiling back at me. They said they had only been there about 5/10 minutes. SWEET!

Oh man! What a view! Finally made it to the Pass!
Getting a little cool, we started the long haul back down the mountain. Ed led, then Scottay, Voodoo insisted on running sweep, so I followed Scottay. Ed and Scottay dropped me fast, I was still not feeling it. But as we dropped, I felt better and better. Faster and smoother. I caught Scottay who let me by, but I never saw Ed until the very bottom.

We all regrouped and then did the rollers back to the trucks. I was stoked with the group and very stoked we did the trail to the pass.

It was back at the trucks where we got the biggest surprise of the day....

Just as we were pulling in Ed shouts over to Tom, "You brought the beer, right?"
Tom replies, "Nope, I did not." I hear heavy sighs, to include me inside.

But when Scottay drops his tailgate, there sits a whit plastic bag. We think Doug had dropped of some bike parts to Scottay, but no. Scottay looks inside, and there is a note, sitting on top of ice cold PBR! It's from @jimbowho ! What the F...!o_O:geek:

Super ice cold sitting in a bag of ice we rejoiced there is a trail god and today it was jimbowho, hahah! (You should have come on over for the ride, we would have totally made it work! :))

So we start the pics with the last couple taken...
Jimbowho! We salute you!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
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The Ride pics:
On the way out you have to hike up the death chute, great stuff to finish on!
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The trail is a lot of this very narrow singletrack winding along.
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On the climb up the mountain.
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Getting close to the "Old Summit" where we would turn around... Not today!
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At the Summit pass! UPSed!
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Scottay!
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Voodoo with a great backdrop.

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Mikie with a background to the North and a view of Acton.
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From our Peak, the trail continues and I am totally confident that leads to the Pacific Crest Trail on the East side of Mount Gleason. Sweet! Next time!
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Life Behind Bars and you can actually see the Antelope Valley just center right in the pic!
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Back at the Death Chute, UPSed is dropping it. i hate camera's, never shows what we are really doing!
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Mikie handling bid-ness on the Death Chute via Voodoo taking the pic.
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OC Guys? You would totally dig this ride if you like the edgy narrow exposed singletrack. Its a full body work out on the twisty trail navigating through sharp switchbacks dropping in sharp gullies and such. Get some of this folks. This trail needs the love traffic to keep it alive!

And another shout out to @jimbowho for a knock it out of the park trailhead surprise when we got back. next time, ride it with us brothah!

Bike on!
:)Mikie
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@Mikie, great report! I rode it before X- Mas it was really overgrown still, is it still that way? Sounds like closer to time change we need to do some after work rides.
 
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