Cole Point, Mount Emma, Old Mount Emma

20 March 1993

By: George Schroedter

Leaders: George Schroedter, Southern Courtney, Frank Goodykoontz

We met in La Cañada at 7:30 AM and carpooled up Angeles Forest Highway and east on Mt Emma Road. We left most of our vehicles parked 1-1/2 miles east of the road into the shooting range and due north of Old Emma. After the short drive to the north trailhead to Cole Point, we got underway about 8:45. The County had bulldozed large piles of dirt in the usually large parking area and worked over the start of the gully. We had to scramble up to the top of the ridge as I could not find the old use trail. Once on top of the ridge, we picked up the trail and were on our way.

This hike is a bit more difficult than it first appears. Just getting to Cole Point involves nearly 1800 feet total gain. We started with 21 but lost 2 halfway to CP. At 10:15 we reached this first peak. No register anywhere in sight, so we hid a new one. (Leaders, call me for location.) At 10:30 we started off for Mt Emma. This turned out to be the challenging part. First, because the other shooting range was closed, the range NE of Cole Point was crowded with shooters. The ridge we hiked, though fairly high, was at one point directly down range. We were yelled at! They reduced their shooting while we passed, but they quite obviously didn't appreciate our presence. (The mgmt committee may have to decide to abandon this ridge.) Second, though Mt Emma is more than 300' lower than Cole Point, the severe ups and downs result in about the same total gain as we had getting to CP. More than a few of the remaining 19 hikers struggled a bit - yours truly included. Finally, after 2 1/4 hours, we made Mt Emma.

Again, no sign of the register. This time one of our hikers found the register laying on the ground when he went into the bushes for a break. After we all signed in, I again stashed the can well out of sight.

The hike over to Old Mt Emma was not too difficult and took less than an hour. Here were found the register in its proper place. By 2:30 PM we were on our way down. It took just 45 minutes to get back to our vehicles. We all agreed that it had been a very good hike, but not an easy one. Great weather!

Participants: Heidi Zimmer, Rose Stein, Roy Stewart, Pamela Streeter, Henry & Janet Shavelle, Hugh Blanchard, Dave Sandelands, Ron Chanald, Frank Atkin, Janet & Erv Bartel, Alice Banter, Ed Johnson, Theresia Glover, Bob Baskin, Bob Schnereges (?).