Recently, I headed to Altadena with the intention of exploring some abandoned gold mines. Between incorrect directions that I had printed out, and lack of cell phone service, things didn’t quite go as planned. Instead of mines and caves, I found myself on the Sam Merrill Trail. I realized I was probably going the wrong way about a mile into the hike, but decided to keep going and see what I’d find. I ended up on the ruins of “White City” on top of Echo Mountain. In the 1890’s, Thaddeus Lowe built a railway to transport passengers up Rubio Canyon to the Echo Mountain Resort Area.
I still had a few hours of daylight left, so I hiked back down to my starting point and headed down a different trail that led me past a tin roofed underground reservoir and to a narrow and sometimes treacherous path that ran parallel to a stream. I was nearly out of daylight, so I didn’t get to explore further, but I feel I was close to finding the mines. A hike for another day…
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