Got to Mt. Islip in early September. A whole bus load of Japanese hikers around 70 years old also climbed the peak that day. Happily the Angeles Forest is still green and well from Chilao Flats to the N by NE. However, the Big Tujunga wash area very devastated. There are signs of plant life rebounding very quickly (as after the great fire of 1975). One hikes about 2 miles in and elevates 500 feet to get to Little Jimmy Camp. The facilities in bad repair but still usable as of 2010. This is a truly wondrous campsite laden with Ponderosa, sugar, Jeffrey and limber pine. There's also fir and incense cedar in places. This is a campsite about .25 X .10 mile and just a charming spot. From there, one can get to the peak in about the last mile and another 1200 feet elevation gain. One first goes past Windy Gap (so named because it's almost always windy there)...the saddle between Mt. Hawkins and Mt. Islip. One can go left to Hawkins or right to Islip. The conifers devasated, here, by 2004 fire and a pine blister beetle since the mid 1990s...this seemingly goes to at least Mt. Baldy and maybe into the front flank of the San Bernardino mountains. Great views from Islip and there was once a lookout cabin up there. One can see most all the San Gabriel range, Sierra Nevadas to the north, Los Angeles Basin, and Ventura Mountains to the west (on a very clear day).
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