Iron Mountain (aka Big Iron) hike #12/18

I have to admit I’ve thought about this hike for a while. Hikers in Southern California talk about Iron Mountain (8009 ft) in whispers using words like “brutal” “grueling” and “believe in the myth” and calling it the most difficult day hike in the entire San Gabriel range. The difficulty comes largely from the epic elevation gain of approx 7,250 over 7.2 miles (14.4 RT)with the last 2 miles climbing over 2000 ft. I took on the challenge and planned my hike to go on a day with mild temps, no clouds, set my turnaround time and turned on my InReach. I actually like all day hiking and I thought this would be a good training hike. It took me 6 hours to summit starting at 6 am and 4.5 hours down.

This is a backcountry hike in the San Gabriel Mountains. Iron Mountain used to be called Sheep Mountain but was renamed for the iron ore deposits found on it. The trail starts out slowly climbing up then switchbacks into the sheep mountain wilderness. The trail was easy to follow and I had clear 360 views of the San Gabriel range. The trail has manzanita and large cactus crowding the trail so pants/long sleeves on the way up are needed.






After about 4 miles of pretty standard mountain hiking you reach a small saddle.This is where you can drop some water before what they call the “sufferfest”. After the saddle the climbing starts not too steep at first but the trail becomes more rocky.






The last 1.5 miles are a challenge. It reminded me of some peaks I’ve hiked up in Spain. You start hiking up through pine trees at this point. The last hike to the summit is a rocky area but not too bad.







My final thoughts: hike was worth it. It was challenging ,interesting, a real mountain hike. Was it as difficult as people said? No but it wasn’t easy either. I think the reputation of Iron Mountain comes more from inexperienced hikers just deciding to hike it without preparation and getting into serious trouble. This is not a mountain to attempt without enough water or descent in the dark. There is still a hiker missing from February who got left behind by her group as the sun went down.