The section of the Pacific Crest Trail from Eagles Roost to Islip Saddle is on the whole the least diversified section I've traversed thus far. This may be in part due to the lack of rainfall. The San Gabriels are continuing to warm, and the temperature was about 80° when I began at 9 am. One of the books I have describes this trail as level even though it goes from 6600' at Eagles Roost to 7900' at the Mt. Williamson ridgeline and back down to 6700' at Islip Saddle. To return to my car meant either another 1200' climb or a 3-mile walk along the Angleles Crest Highway, never a very pleasant experience, so I caught a ride with a family that had just completed a hike to Mt. Islip. Fortunately throughout most of the day there was a good breeze blowing that kept things from getting too hot. On the way up I passed a crew of about a dozen or so young Pacific Crest Trail Association workers widening and smoothing out the trail. The views going up and coming down were fairly spectacular, and I was reminded that the last time I was on this trail was in March of 2012 when I hiked up from Islip Saddle through 18" deep snowdrifts to get pictures of Oreonana vestita in bloom. The pictures displayed here were taken June 8. Thanks to Tom Chester for the identification of the Cryptantha on page 4. The photographs in this gallery were taken on 6/8/13. The list of species for this segment of the PCT is here.

California ground cone
Kopsiopsis strobilacea
Orobanchaceae
[This curious plant is a holoparasite deriving all of its nutrition from the roots of other plants, most often Arctostaphylos and Arbutus. It has no green chlorophyll and resembles an upright pine cone with flowers that protrude from between the scales. The aboveground part is the inflorescense and it has no leaves, only bracts. There is one other species in California which ranges from northern California to British Columbia. Our species blooms from April to June.]

Coullter pine
Pinus coulteri
Pinaceae
[Named for Thomas Coulter, 1793-1843]