Hike Guthrie Mountain to the summit - part 3

The Guthrie mountain trail is a branch trail turning off the Green mountain trail at Bear Canyon saddle in upper Bear Canyon. Basically you hike rom Middle Bear Canyon trailhead northeast until you reach the saddle, and at the saddle, you turn right up the guthrie mountain trail.

The trail starts at about 6,000 feet, and the summit of Guthrie mountain is at 7,281 feet, at the far southeast end of the trail.

This is my second attempt, in late March. On the previous year, I had attempted to hike up this mountain leading a group of people in the hiking meetup group.

When we got up to the top, we discovered that there was between 3 and 4 feet of snow. It was late January, and I had hoped that the warm weather we had experienced recently would have melted off most of the snow. But it hadn't.

So we had to turn around at the top of the first peak, which is at about 7,134. Past that point the trail goes down before it goes up to the summit.

The main reason why we turned back was because you have to scramble up a section of steep rock, and with the snow and ice on the rock, it was a non- starter for me.

Pearl and I hiked up this trail, and she was a trooper. She was actually a stronger hiker than I was, even with the new improved me.

The hike is about 7 miles, and it's all mostly uphill except at just before the end, and it's about 1,500 feet up from the trailhead. It's a nice hike, but it's a typical Santa Catalina trail level of ruggedness, so it takes a bit of work to get the trail hiked.

The day that I decided to take on this hike, it was just about perfect, partly cloudy and a light breeze. It was a great hike.

Pearl and I had lunch up on top of the summit. You can sit up on these big rocks up on top and look southeast across San manuel valley and south past Reddington road to the Rincon mountains over the tops of the rolling hills and mountains south.

It was a good hike, and the views were really as good as and better than I had hoped.

It was not an especially difficult trail. The condition of the trail was actually pretty good overall.

The hike is about a 5 hour hike, but if you have lunch, and take pictures and look around, it can take 7 hours or so. The view to the south and east should be savored up at the summit.