Whitaker Peak
Ride3
Trip Length:14.8 miles
Ride Time:2.5-3.0 hours
Difficulty:slightly streneous non technical
Total elevation climbing:2425 feet
Ride terrain:6 miles on pavement and remainder on good fireroad
Location:Take Hwy 5 (Golden State Freeway) north past Magic Mountain and Valencia and exit at Templin Hwy. This is first exit after climbing the Castaic grade. Turn left at the exit and then right. Proceed on the road for about 1 mile and keep your eyes on the lookout for a sign on your left saying Whitaker Peak 4 miles. This is where the ride starts. There is plenty of room to park your car on the right shoulder. There is no water available and the area can be quite windy at times. If there is no wind the knats can be a problem so bring something to cover your mouth. The highest point on the ride will be 4100 feet.
Weather:Before you start on this ride check the weather in the mountains You can get the current temperatures and wind conditions for Whitaker peak
Description:This is a nice ride to take when your energy level is on the low side or you are a beginner wanting to go on a not too strenuous ride. I like this ride because once on top of Whitaker peak you have a view of 3 lakes. To the north 1500 feet below you is Pyramid Lake. The picture you are looking at above viewed northwest almost 3000 feet below is Lake Piru and about 2500 feet below looking to the southeast is Castaic Lake. An accasional car or motorcycle will be more common than seeing other mountain bikers.
The ride starts out at a tad over 2900 foot level on a good paved road. The climbing is not too difficult with the average grade between 7 and 8% as you meander toward the first summit of radio towers visable above you. For the first mile you hear the freeway traffic and at 3271 feet you notice a fireroad on your left. We will explore this path on our way back. Now you ride away from the freeway noise and at 2 miles reach the three way junction at 3637 foot level. Whitaker peak is now visable and you will take the pavement road on your left that will start descending for about .5 miles. During the descent find a nice spot to take a rest and enjoy the views of the surrounding terrain. Once you reach the bottom of the descent the paved road becomes a wide dirt fireroad. After 2 miles of climbing for about 630 feet you are almost at the top of Whitaker peak. Take the single tract on your right and climb a little bit more and you are at the first summit at 4100 feet. The views up here are fantastic.
You have a 360'degree view of the entire area on top of this first peak. To the northwest is Lake Piru and the surrounding foothills. To the north rising probably between 6 and 7 thousand feet are the mountains in back of Lake Pyramid laced with pines on their summits. Frazier mountain is visable in the far background. To the East the Old ridge route is clearly visable and also the peaks of Liebre Mountain. Finally looking south one can see the San Gabriel mountains adjoining Hwy 14. After soaking in the views descend and to your right take the short fireroad to the peak of Whitaker Mountain with all the communication antennas. From here looking to the southeast is the view of Lake Castaic. You cannot go any farther than this. The trail ends here. So retrace your steps and descend and when you reach the next junction after the short .5 mile climb turn left. We will follow this path for about 1.8 miles which will gradually climb to a ridge at 3945 feet at 9.1 mile point. You will see interesting rock formations, a good view looking toward Lake Pyramid,your nice little climb up Whitaker peak and your vehicle 1000 feet below you.
Turn around at the point where the fireroad descends steeply. Retrace your steps and at the junction turn left and continue descending until you reach a fireroad to your right a mile later. We'll take this fireroad to its end. It's a little less than a mile and fairly flat. On this little side trip you have a neat view of Whitaker Peak. It seems like its thousands of feet above you but it's only an 850 feet elevation difference. Enjoy the view looking down into the canyon on your left. All there is left to the ride is to return to the junction turn right on the paved road and in a few minutes you are back to your vehicle. A nice little ride without too much energy expended and some nifty and unique views of the mountains in the back country of LA.
Here are some photos of the area
