Fuji Campground

Trail Report:

Date:	June 15, '13
Location:	Eaton Canyon trailhead
Hike:	Henninger Flats/Fuji Campground (elevation  gain 1200 ft)
Today’s miles:	6
Total Trip:	6

The route to Fuji Campground starts with a half mile climb up a steep canyon to a junction with the Mount Wilson Toll Road.

The 100-inch glass on the way to Mt. Wilson

The Toll road was originally built in 1891. In 1904 the Carnegie Institution leased land at the top of Mount Wilson to build a new observatory. The road was widened to facilitate observatory construction and logistics. In 1917, the famous 100-inch Hooker telescope mirror was driven up the Toll Road. The Hooker would be the world's largest telescope for 30 years. (1917-1948).

Today, the Toll Road is a wide, dusty, shadeless, 2-mile mindless slog that ascends 1,000 feet to the Henninger Flats Forestry Center and Campground.  To the south, there are stunning views of the LA Basin.  The steep and winding grade is a perfect racetrack for kamikaze mountain bikers.

Henninger flats is a sizable installation which includes a large picnic area, a small natural science museum, an antique fire tower and a few historic mining carts.  The LAFD personnel who man the forestry center are especially friendly.

The trail up to the Fuji campground intersects the Toll Road just below a pair of padlocked pit toilets.  Fuji is just a hundred yards up the hill to shady campground that's a mating habitat for Western Bluebirds.

I have walked this stretch a zillion times.  Today was not routine.  I was focused.  I put my knee to the test.  I'm beginning to believe all's fine.